David with the Head of Goliath

David with the Head of Goliath by Guido Reni, at the Uffizi, presents the young hero in the idealized classical manner that made Reni the Bolognese rival to Caravaggio's naturalism. Where Caravaggio's David was a street boy from the Roman slums, Reni's is a figure of classical beauty. Guido Reni's refined classicism and ethereal beauty made him one of the most celebrated painters in Europe during his lifetime, his graceful idealized figures expressing a spirituality that appealed equally to Counter-Reformation piety and aristocratic aesthetic sensibility.

Reni's smooth, idealized flesh painting and elegant drawing create an image of refined beauty. The severed head is treated with more restraint than in Caravaggio's versions, the horror sublimated into classical harmony. The palette is characteristically cool and silvery.