Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Archangel Michael

Giuseppe Cesari, cavaliere d'Arpino

Date

ca. 1624–26

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

By the time Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) was elected to the papacy in 1623, the establishment painter Cavaliere d’Arpino had worked for a succession of popes for over four decades. He had moved to Rome as a young prodigy and begun working in the Vatican palace at the tender age of 15. Even so, the painter was repeatedly passed over for altarpiece commissions in the newly completed basilica of St. Peter’s during Urban’s reign. Mia’s magnificent painting may have been executed to get in the pope’s good graces. Urban personally identified with the Archangel Michael as defender of the Catholic faith and papal authority during the Counter-Reformation. He chose the saint’s feast day for his papal coronation, and put the Archangel on his papal coins and medals. Two weeks after this painting was delivered to the Barberini family palace, Arpino finally secured a commission for St. Peter’s: he was hired to design a mosaic altarpiece representing the Archangel Michael fighting Lucifer. Here the Archangel is already victorious, his bejeweled foot planted triumphantly upon a prostrate Lucifer. Arpino imbued the saint with extraordinary physical presence, giving considerable descriptive detail to his wings, costume, and flesh, all without sacrificing elegance. The painting remained in the Barberini palace in Rome until 1934, then resided with the pope’s descendants into the 21st century. Italy, Europe

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