The Archangel Michael

Florentine ceramic sculptors about 1500 successfully imbued their statuettes with the charm and solid compositional principles promoted by High Renaissance painters such as Fra Bartolommeo. They must have marketed them successfully as well. Anonymous modelers, later given monikers such as the "Master of the Unruly Children" and the "Master of the David and Saint John Statuettes," formed sizable studios from which poured a steady stream of terracottas with religious themes. Our archangel is one of the last-named master's largest and finest moments. Michael, in well-studied contrapposto, stands effortlessly triumphing over a dragon of comic-book mien. His daintily fashioned corselet bears the heads and wings of two seraphim in reference to his role in the sacred mysteries. He has lost his usual attributes, his sword and the scale pan in which he would have weighed the souls of the departed. They were no doubt made of gilt metal or wood.