David is depicted as a child carrying the giant’s head and accompanied by soldiers. On the right, women hail him with musical instruments. The event is referred to in the Bible (1 Kings 18).

After the death of Titian (1576), Paolo Veronese (1588), Jacopo Bassano (1592) and Jacopo Tintoretto (1594), this painted Venetian scene was left in the hands of very cautious heirs: Domenico Tintoretto, Carletto Veronese or Leandro Bassano. In this context, Palma established himself as the principal artist of the Serenissima and garnered the favour of the clergy and authorities. Since he was a prolific painter who hardly varied his style, his oeuvre suffers from a repetition of schemes and models. It is thought that Palma spent a brief period in Titian’s workshop before leaving for Urbino and Rome prior to returning to Venice in 1578.

In this work and its sister piece (P272), dating from around 1590–95, Palma displays an eclectic style—in which the Venetian tradition (Titian, Veronese and above all Tintoretto) coexists with an emphasis on disegno—that reveals an interest in updating his figurative language and redefining his social status following the model of the Carracci Bolognese school. Unlike the painters of the previous generation, colour is subordinate to line, which silhouettes figures and objects. Their similar style and size suggest that the paintings were intended to be exhibited together. They belonged to Charles I of England, but upon his death they passed to the embroiderer Edward Harrison, from whom Alonso de Cardenas purchased them for £137.10 (550 escudos). Philip IV the Great allocated them to El Escorial and hung them in the Prior Room. Despite Father De los Santos’s praise of both works in his review of El Escorial in 1667, he echoed criticism of David’s excessively small size que casi avulta tanto como él la cabeça del Gigante, although he quickly found a justification for this: And the Painter must also have wanted to signify that it was God who willed this victory, and thus chose the small and humble one to disorient the prideful one.