Saint Michael and the Dragon

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Saint Michael and the Dragon: Raphael

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Raphael Oil Painting - Saint Michael and the Dragon

Keywords: Saint, Michael, Dragon

Work Overview: St. Michael
Artist Raphael
Year c. 1504–1505
Medium Oil on wood
Dimensions 30 cm × 26 cm (12 in × 10 in)
Location Louvre, Paris

St. Michael is an oil painting by Italian artist Raphael. Also called the Little St. Michael to distinguish it from a larger, later treatment of the same theme, St. Michael Vanquishing Satan, it is housed in the Louvre in Paris.[1] The work depicts the Archangel Michael in combat with the demons of Hell, while the damned suffer behind him. Along with St. George, it represents the first of Raphael's works on martial subjects.

An early work of the artist, the painting was executed for Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, in 1504 or 1505 on the back of a draughtboard, possibly commissioned to express appreciation to Louis XII of France for conferring the Order of Saint Michael on Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Urbino's nephew and heir.[3] Whatever the impetus for its creation, by 1548 it hung in the collection at the Palace of Fontainebleau.

In 2006's Early Work of Raphael, Julia Cartwright suggests it may betray the influence of Timoteo Viti in the gold tinting to the green wings of Michael, while the sinners in the background suggest that Raphael may have consulted an illustrated volume of Dante's Inferno.[3] The punishments depicted reflect Dante's treatment of hypocrites and thieves.[4]

A little more than a decade after completing the little St. Michael, Raphael was commissioned to revisit the theme, producing St. Michael Vanquishing Satan for Pope Leo X in 1518.

In a bleak landscape with the silhouette of a burning city in the distance, Michael has just forced the Devil to the ground and is about to kill him with a blow from his sword. The monsters crawling out from all sides are reminiscent of those created by Hieronymus Bosch, while the figures in the centre recall those from the Inferno of Dante's epic poem the Divine Comedy. On the left are the hypocrites in leaden coats, condemned to follow their torturous path, while on the right are the thieves being tormented by serpents.

The St Michael and St George and the Dragon in the Louvre, and the St George of the National Gallery in Washington are bound together both by their subject - an armed youth fighting a dragon - and by stylistic elements. All three are assigned to the Florentine period and echo those stimuli which Raphael received from the great masters who worked in Florence or whose paintings were visible there. The influence of Leonardo - whose fighting warriors from the Battle of Anghiari (1505) in the Palazzo della Signoria provided an extraordinary example of martial art (the painting deteriorated very rapidly because of shortcomings in Leonardo's experimental technique and so is no longer visible) - predominates in these works. But references to Flemish painting suggest the environment of Urbino, where Northern influences were still quite vivid.

Raphael's imagination which is particularly developed in the details of the St Michael, is more balanced in the figure of the Archangel, the focus of the entire composition. This sense of balance and composure is developed further in the other two panels, where the landscape, still of Umbrian derivation, accentuates the serenity of the figures, notwithstanding the dramatic character of the subject. These small panels are indicative of a moment in which the painter gathers the stylistic fruits of what he has assimilated so far and, at the same time, poses pictorial problems which will be developed in the future.

Saint Michael Overwhelming the Demon may have been painted for Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, around 1503−1505, at the same time as Saint George and the Dragon (INV. 609), with which it has always been associated.
From Apocalypse to Divine Comedy
In the Apocalypse of Saint John (Book of Revelation), the Archangel Michael, having overcome the rebel angels, slays the dragon, an allegorical embodiment of evil, and casts it to earth. In this depiction, Raphael enriched the scene’s traditional representation with ancillary scenes inspired by the Inferno in the Divine Comedy, in which Dante recounts the punishment of hypocrites and thieves. On the left, the hypocrites, shrouded in gilded lead cloaks, are emerging from the ground and parading before the burning city, while on the right the naked thieves are at being devoured by snakes and black birds.
A text admired at the court of Urbino
Dante’s Inferno was greatly admired at the court of Urbino, and Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, or possibly his sister, Giovanna Feltria della Rovere, eager to celebrate her son Francesco Maria della Rovere’s admission to the Order of Saint Michael in 1503, could have commissioned this picture. Its companion piece, a portrayal of Saint George, also in the Louvre, is very similar to another depiction of the same theme clearly linked to the Duke of Urbino’s patronage. Saint Michael’s shield, decorated with a red cross on a white ground, has so far been seen solely an allusion to the cross of Saint Michael, knight of Christ.
A strong northern European influence
This work is typical of a series of very small pictures Raphael painted around 1503−1505, when he was dividing his time between Perugia and Urbino. The influence of Perugino, discernable here in the lanky, dancing figure of Saint Michael, is combined with a strong debt to northern European painting, particularly Memling but also – herein lies the painting’s originality – Hieronymus Bosch. The latter had very probably stayed in Venice around 1500 and his phantasmagorical creatures belonging to a totally imaginary, subterranean world and artificial light effects also fascinated Italian painters. Raphael was one of the first to be inspired by him, as shown here by the ghoulish figures Saint Michael is fighting and the landscape itself.

The St. Michael oil painting by Raphael is widely recognized by millions of people. Although most people know what this painting looks like, they don’t know the story behind it. The painting has an image of Archangel Michael with demons around him. He has wings and a halo attached to him while he is surrounded by the depths of hell, which are dark and dreary.

There are demon sufferers on the ground around St. Michael and underneath his foot. He carries a shield and a long sword for fighting all the demons around him. There are visible angels in the background of the painting. The damned behind him are all in suffering.

Raphael Sanzio da Urbino was an Italian painter that owned a large
workshop and was one of the great masters of his period. During his short life he created a number of different pieces of fine art. Most of his pieces hang throughout the world today, including inside of The Vatican.
Raphael painted this particular piece for Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino, in 1504-1505. The exact reason for the creation of the piece is not known, but there is one theory that is commonly accepted. It is said that the piece was commissioned to express the gratitude of the Duke to Louis XII of France. The gratitude was a result of King Louis conferring the Order of St. Michael on Urbino’s heir and nephew.

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