Pietà Altarpiece: Detail, St. Michael

Castile, 15th century
Tempera and gold on wood, with engaged frame
Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession # 41.190.27

The image follows the common pattern of showing the archangel thrusting his spear into the mouth of Satan, who is represented as a serpent, the "great dragon" of Revelation 12:9.

With his other hand St. Michael holds a balance-scale in which he is weighing souls – one damned on the right and the other saved on the left. He is often pictured with this balance-scale in images of the Last Judgment.

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Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.