A stance of triumph before the fatal blow as we see two figures that have come to the end of a terrible and violent struggle in which one has finally been subdued. It is a battle between good and evil and darkness and light. The fallen one, Satan, has been subjugated and defeated by the Archangel Michael. This is a very active and fluidic piece that has the very palpable feeling of motion and action. Satan has fallen under the boot heel of a powerful force of light. He looks exhausted and resigned to his fate as he struggles vainly under his more powerful adversary. His face is a mixture of anger, contempt and seems on the verge of giving up. Contrast this with Michael who stands strong defiant and not giving in one iota to his vanquished foe and yet if you look closely at his face it is one of calm and seems devoid of any violence or malice. He seems to give off an air of resignation, calmness and seems devoted to his cause but harbours no malice to Satan but rather accepting of his adversary’s temperament and realizes that his defeat is the most logical course of action. There also seems to be a trace of pity and sadness at how far the creature he has subdued has fallen. The garb that adorns Michael is in the manner and style of a Roman soldier and seems most fitting considering how fierce the reputation of the soldiers were. His sword is poised in a manner of both hesitation and threat perhaps weighing his options at how to defeat the evil creature once and for all. Is he to live or die? The background is as tumultuous as the battle between the two figures, with swirling clouds and flames licking at their heels. All in all this a very moving work that fully illustrates the continuing struggle between light and dark whether in the myths of the past or within us as individuals. The artist who created this moving and powerful work, Guido Reni, was an Italian painter from Bologna who specialized in works of this nature and a review of his body of paintings shows the same fluidity, emotion and action seen here.
Many thanks for the keen eye the caught my spelling error on a previous blog, I had switched the dates what should have been 1603 ended up being 1630! Oops!
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