Baroque saint Michael, southern Germany, late 17th

Our sculpture represents an episode of the Old Testament. It is the war of Heaven in which Saint Michael succeeds in bringing down Lucifer, thus driving him out of heaven and concluding the victory of God over evil.

This is how the Archangel Michael is depicted as a warrior, equipped with a helmet and a breastplate, and holding the sword in his left hand. The sculptor places saint Michel in Contrapposto: all his weight rests on his left foot which plops suffering Lucifer. This attitude gives a particular flexibility to Saint Michael whose figure seems in motion. This is further reinforced by the sculpted work on the drapes and pteryges. The subtlety of the polychrome details, especially visible in the cuirass and cape, is a fine example of the modeling work.

This is an iconographic theme carved from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries on a large geographical space, ranging from Strasbourg to Palermo. Indeed, thanks to the Danube, artists can travel a lot, and the cultural, philosophical and artistic ideas of the time circulate freely. Our sculpture thus testifies to the sculptural production related to the Danube school in the 17th century, then imbued with multiple inspirations (Netherlands, Italy,...)

The figure of the devil is forged.
Polychromed lime wood.

Height: 151 cm