Artwork story
About The winged archangel Saint Michael holding a sword and standing on the head of the devil, who descends into hell, an oval composition
The artist and artwork
An unidentified seventeenth-century printmaker etched this image of the Archangel Michael sometime between 1600 and 1640, translating a painting by Guido Reni into ink on paper. Reni was one of the leading painters formed by Bologna's Carracci tradition, whose combination of natural observation, classical form, color, and direct emotional communication helped establish the Baroque. The Met records the printmaker as anonymous, so the object is best understood as a collaboration across media and attribution: Reni supplied the celebrated design, while an unnamed etcher made it portable and repeatable.
The world around it
The print belongs to an era when Bolognese painting had become a dominant force in seventeenth-century European art and Catholic patrons wanted sacred images that were elevated, intelligible, and emotionally immediate. Reni's generation carried the Carracci reform from Bologna to Rome, joining classical beauty to Baroque movement. Etching was especially suited to spreading such designs. A needle cut through a waxy ground, acid bit the exposed lines into copper, and impressions could circulate far beyond the original painting's location. This small sheet therefore turned a monumental victory of faith into an image that could be owned, handled, and viewed closely.
A detail to notice
Michael's victory is compressed into one steep diagonal. His sword begins near the upper edge, his bright right wing and shadowed left wing open across the oval, and his extended leg drives the viewer's eye down to the devil's head. The defeated figure does not merely lie beneath him: he tips backward into smoke, flame, and broken rock, with one raised hand still pressed against Michael's ankle. Wind lifts Michael's short tunic and long sash, yet his lowered face remains calm. That contrast, violent downward motion governed by an almost serene victor, gives the image its force. Fine parallel strokes model limbs and fabric, while denser crosshatching turns the underworld at lower right into a dark visual destination.
Look closer: materials, scale, and subjects
The recorded object is print made in Etching and held in the Drawings and Prints department.
Recorded dimensions include Sheet: 8 1/4 × 6 1/16 in. (21 × 15.4 cm).
Subject terms include Swords, Saint Michael, and Devil. Treat them as guideposts, not a complete interpretation.
Collection history and public-domain source
The collection credit line is Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1926.
The individual artwork page and official image were verified as Public Domain on 2026-08-23.
No Context Gallery independently uses the public-domain image. The source museum has not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated itself with these products.
Research sources
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