Artist: Luca Giordano
Date: 1663
Size: 147 x 198 cm
Technique: Oil On Canvas
The story of the Archangel Michael’s victory over Satan and the renegade angels is told in Revelation (12, 7-9). As a Christian knight, St. Michael was perceived as a symbol of the Catholic Church victorious over Protestantism and the Turkish threat. In Giordano’s version the brightly glowing colour and the powerfully thrusting fi gure of the angel underline the triumphal nature of the scene. The picture was originally intended for an altar, but it is not known for which church. It was painted c. 1663, and is part of a phase in Giordano’s output in which he was infl uenced by the Bolognese painter Guido Reni. His model was Reni’s altar panel dating from shortly before 1636 in the Capuchin church in Rome. Giordano was also aware, from engravings, of Raphael’s St. Michael (1518). Satan’s grotesque face was based on an etching by the Neapolitan Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652).
Artist |
|
|---|---|
Download |
|
Permissions |
Free for non commercial use. See below. |
 |
This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. However - you may not use this image for commercial purposes and you may not alter the image or remove the watermark. This applies to the United States, Canada, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.
|
Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years. This image may
not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the
