St. Michael (Bronze Statue by Hubert Gherards over the Portal of the Jesuit Church in Munich)
Hubert Gherards Netherlandish
Draftsman Peter Candid (Pieter de Witte, Pietro Candido) Netherlandish
Lucas Kilian German
Not on view
Placed within a niche between the two main portals of the Sankt Michaelskirche in Munich, this bronze statue of the Archangel Michael reminds passersby of the victory of good over evil. The statue was made in 1588 by the sculptor Hubert Gherards as part of the building campaign of this new Jesuit church. Its facade was adorned by a total of seventeen bronze statues in niches, fifteen of which depicted former Bavarian rulers. The church was considered as a symbol of the Counter-Reformation in southern Germany, and the statue by Gherards may be considered a symbolic reference to this fact. Several prints after the statue were made, but this one by Lucas Kilian, based on a drawing by Peter de Witte, is by far the most accurate and attractive, simultaneously showing us the virtuosity of Gherards as bronzista and Kilian as engraver.
