Archangel Michael

Archangel Michael appears in one of the most common types of representation since the 7th century: dressed as a soldier, with a helmet, shield and spear. He fights the devil, representing the Church’s triumph over its enemies.
Attributed to an alabaster workshop in Ghent, but with some reservations because there’s also the possibility that the piece came from colonial artistic circulation between South America (Peru, 1601-1700) and the Iberian market.
This sculpture will come from the Convent of São Francisco do Funchal. In the Church of Saint John Evangelist, where he was before coming to MASF in 1976, there is also an altar of expressive Baroque monumentality of the same invocation, but where the Archangel is represented with a scale in his hand, as a weigher and conductor of souls.