The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, in a Niche

The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, in a Niche

Lucas Kilian

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Dutch artist active in Munich, Hubert Gerhard made multiple sculptures for the city’s Church of Saint Michael. His large figure of the Archangel, to whom the church is dedicated, defeating Satan occupies a central niche on the building’s facade. It is reproduced here in a finely worked engraving by Lucas Kilian, a prominent German printmaker, after a lost drawing by Peter Candid.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, in a NicheThe Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, in a NicheThe Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, in a NicheThe Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, in a NicheThe Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, in a Niche

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.