Voces del Prado

The Triumph of David by Nicolas Poussin

Manuela Mena Marqués, Head of the Department of Conservation of 18th Century Painting and Goya, 1978-2019

The Triumph of David by Poussin is really one of my favourite works, not only at the Museo del Prado, but in the history of art. Because Poussin is one of my favourite artists. It’s a complex picture, although it belongs to Poussin’s younger years, and so it’s easier to explain than Poussin’s later and colder works. But young Poussin, in his Triumph of David, highlights David’s thoughts, above all through his expression, namely whether killing Goliath was a good or a bad thing; Poussin conveys this idea in a truly magisterial manner through the position of David’s head, his expression and the look in his eye. Furthermore, Goliath’s cut and bleeding head is enormously dignified, really beautiful; Goliath doesn’t look like a monster. And this is what David is also thinking, that he has just killed someone who isn’t a monster. Goliath was attacking his people, but now he’s asking himself whether he has done the right thing in killing him. The sense of doubt that Poussin imbues this painting with so effortlessly is, perhaps, the thing I like most about it. The painting is difficult to explain, but all pictures are difficult to explain. On the right we have Goliath’s lifeless head, the result of a violent death. On the left we can see some lovely Cupids, really beautiful, who are attempting to play David’s lyre, a very special lyre that worked through the wind that entered through the window, a much more difficult instrument to play than a real lyre. Here Poussin also reflects the complex nature of the whole affair. And then we have the exquisite figure of Victoria, full of peace and confidence, who is crowning David for having done what he had to do. If we continue thinking about it, we find it’s a very difficult picture.
I took the trouble to measure the difference in height between Goliath and David’s heads and, following what the Bible states, Goliath’s head is actually three times bigger than David’s. Goliath is precisely as giant as the Bible says, which Poussin read, and he executed the picture in the best manner possible. That is to say, artists are just like that: they have a tremendous degree of obsession, and this is, perhaps, the most interesting thing about art.
Who are we? It moves us to reflect. If you stand in front of a painting such as Poussin’s and really start to look at it, you begin to reflect on who you are and who other people are. And we can see the beauty. Some must have fallen in love with that marvellous David, who encapsulates a Praxitelian delicacy, one that Poussin never experienced. Art also teaches us about that sunset, there in the distance, which follows a day of such battle and bloodshed. The sun is setting and then it will rise again. As you can see, if you get me started on this Poussin painting, I could be here talking for at least a week!