Oil On Canvas, XVIIIth Century
St. Michael the Archangel is represented according to the iconography deriving from the French art of the XIII Century, which wants the archangel dressed as a crusader and with a shell and helmet.
The choice, however, to depict him beardless and with the spread wings derives from the Byzantine tradition.
The divine defender banishes a sword in his right hand while with his left hand he holds a two-plate scale on which he weighs the souls of the dead.
They are represented naked: on the left, there is a man, in profile and with the arms joined to the chest that begs the Archangel; on the right a woman with her arms raised.
The devil is placed in the lower left and he is depicted as a figure of an animal; with one hand he grasps the calf of St. Michael and with the other he holds a pitchfork.
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