Spanish school; first half of the 17th century.

Spanish school; first half of the XVII century.
"St. Michael the Archangel.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a frame of the seventeenth century with restorations.
Measurements: 149.5 x 100 cm; 175 x 126 cm (frame).
In this painting of purely baroque language is represented the archangel San Miguel, dressed with armor, with great wings spread and stepping on the demon that in this case has human form and carries a trident. The Archangels are the highest level of the Third Order in the angelic hierarchies, and are the only ones among them who have names. As for the West, the Lateran Council (746) limited the number of archangels to worship three (Michael, Gabriel and Raphael), a circumstance that changed after the discovery in 1516 of a fresco in the church of San Angelo of the Carmelite order in Palermo in which the Trinity appeared with the seven archangels, which would also be reproduced (sometimes with variations) by numerous engravings, thus extending the iconography. Thus, from this moment on, the Catholic Church included this number among those who would receive worship, multiplying the representations of them in a single painting, or forming cycles with each one of them in a work, until later some of them would be removed. According to tradition, St. Michael is the head of the heavenly militia and defender of the Church. Precisely for this reason he fights against the rebellious angels and against the dragon of the Apocalypse. He is also psychopomp, that is to say, he leads the dead and weighs the souls on the day of the Last Judgment. Scholars have linked his cult to that of several gods of antiquity: Anubis in Egyptian mythology, Hermes and Mercury in classical mythology, and Wotan in Norse mythology. In the West, the cult of St. Michael began to develop from the 5th and 6th centuries, first in Italy and France, and then spreading to Germany and the rest of Christendom. The churches and chapels dedicated to him are innumerable around the year 1000, in connection with the belief that on that date the Apocalypse would arrive. His temples are often located on high places, since he is a celestial saint. The kings of France gave him a particular veneration from the 14th century, and the Counter-Reformation made him the head of the church against the Protestant heresy, giving a new impulse to his cult. St. Michael the Archangel is a military saint, and therefore patron saint of knights and of all trades related to weapons, as well as to the scales, for his role as apocalyptic judge. His iconography is of considerable richness, but relatively stable. As a general rule, he appears in the attire of a soldier or knight, holding a spear or sword and a shield decorated with a cross. When he fights the dragon, he fights on foot or in the air, which distinguishes him from St. George, who is almost always on horseback. However, the great difference between the two saints is St. Michael's wings.