The Archangel Michael Triumphing over Lucifer

Author: Klazina Botke

The archangel Michael, commander of the heavenly armies, is shown here about to slay the devil (Revelations 12:16). With his spear at the ready, he catches the winged devil, who is not quite able to look up at his rival. The sheet has been attributed to Raphael (1482-1520), and also associated with Guido Reni (1575-1642), who lived and worked a century later.^[1] The composition does indeed contain similarities with both Raphael’s St Michael Vanquishing Satan in Paris (1518) and with the much copied masterpiece by Reni, The Archangel Michael (c.1635) in Santa Maria della Concezione in Rome.^[2] The watermark in our sheet, however, indicates a date around the first half of the sixteenth century. Although the drawing style is completely different, there is a study with a similar composition in Chicago.^[3] This drawing by an anonymous Italian artist is also thought to be a work after Guido Reni’s St Michael.

Michael’s right arm and right hand are depicted twice in pen and ink: once with a lifted sword and once holding the spear. In the end, the artist selected the latter option and worked up the arm with white highlights. Michael holds the heavy head firmly in his left hand. The position of the archangel’s right leg was also changed during the drawing process. As a result of these pentimenti it is probable that the study is not an exact copy of an existing work, but a very free interpretation or even an original composition. The paper was prepared with blue ground and the top of the sheet has been cut to a semi-circle, which makes one suspect that the final painting also had this shape.^[4] In Domela Nieuwenhuis’s inventory the drawing is even linked to a work in the Hermitage in St Petersburg, but a similar composition was not found in the collection there.^[5]