The canvas arrived in the museum's collections at the end of the nineteenth century and soon became a sort of icon. David has just beheaded the giant Goliath and suddenly turns to the viewer. The painting captures the moment of extreme physical and moral tension of the young shepherd: the right arm is lowered, after having struck the sword, the left one, with tense muscles and stretched diagonally as if he were the protagonist of the work, is to raise the giant's huge head.

The naturalism of the details, from the fur on David's shoulders, to the mesh bag with heavy stones tied at the waist, to the rocky background on the left, coexists with the evident plasticism of the figure: to the Caravaggesque reference is added that of Lombard mannerism.