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St. Michael Slaying the Devil (S. Michael Archangelus)
St. Michael Slaying the Devil (S. Michael Archangelus)

St. Michael Slaying the Devil (S. Michael Archangelus)

late 16th century
Object PlaceMexico
Medium/TechniqueFeatherwork painting with cut feathers and gilt paper, on paper and copper; ebony frame
DimensionsFramed: 31.4 × 26.4 × 2.5 cm (12 3/8 × 10 3/8 × 1 in.)
Credit LineCharles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund, Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund, Gift of Jessie H. Wilkinson—Jessie H. Wilkinson Fund, and Edwin E. Jack Fund
Accession number2015.3292
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsMixed media
Collections
Inscriptions"S. MICHAEL ARCHANGELUS" at bottom center of imageProvenanceBy 1607/1611, Rudolf II of Prague (b. 1552 – d. 1612), Holy Roman Emperor [see note 1]. Before 1926, possibly purchased in France by the grandmother of a private collector, England [see note 2]; by descent to her grandson, England; July 14, 2012, anonymous sale, Tennants Auctioneers, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, England, lot 982, to Jonathan Harris, London; gift of Mr. Harris to Louisa Harris Halabi, London; 2015, sold by Louisa Harris Halabi to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 16, 2015)

Notes:
[1] The inventory of Rudolf II’s Kunstkammer, drawn up between 1607 and 1611 lists, on folio 58, nine “gemeld ven federn al Indiana” (feather paintings from the Indies), including No. 615, “Der engel s.t. Michael, under ihm der teuffel” (The angel St. Michael, under him the devil). Based on its similarities to other paintings from this series, which are today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (nos. SK GS Kap 321, 322, and 323), and the original frame that surrounds the work, Rudolf II’s Saint Michael is almost certainly the present work. See Rotraud Bauer and Herbert Haupt, eds., Das Kunstkammerinventar Kaiser Rudolfs II., 1607-1611, vol. 72 of Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 1976, pp. 34-35.

[2] According to information provided by the auction house, the painting was consigned by a “North Country gentleman” who had inherited it from his maternal grandmother, a British citizen who passed away in 1926. She may have acquired the work in France.