St Michael Overcoming the Devil with Angels

Photo © Martin Crampin, Imaging the Bible in Wales larger image

1921 Three-light window. technique: stained glass firm/studio: Morris & Co. designer: Edward Coley Burne-Jones designer: John Henry Dearle Church of St Cybi, Holyhead, Anglesey Given in memory of Harry Adeane, Captain in the Coldstream Guards, who died at the first Battle of Ypres, 1 November 1914. The composition of Michael here overcoming Satan is clearly inspired by the work of Guido Reni (1575-1642) painted in 1636 for Cardinal Francesco Barberini, in the church of Sta Maria della Concezione, Rome. (This is the painting in which Satan has the unmistakeable features of Pope Innocent X, compare with the portrait by Velasquez.) This was a popular work in the late nineteenth century (see the copy in a private collection from Carmarthenshire and the banner in St Michael's, Abertillery). Given the roots of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones in the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, it is somewhat ironic to find that the inspiration for this design comes from a seventeenth-century painting. However the window is more the work of the designer Henry Dearle, who cartooned the figure of St Michael, while cartoons of figures by Burne-Jones were reused in the outer lights.  (ObjectID=1149 ImageID=2194) Original File Name=_MG_7707.jpg

This artwork is indexed under the following main subject(s):
for other works containing these subjects please click on the links.

• angels 
• St Michael the Archangel fighting the dragon (devil, Satan)  [Revelation 12:9]

A. Charles Sewter, The Stained Glass of William Morris and his Circle: A Catalogue (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1975), p. 96.

Martin Crampin, Stained Glass from Welsh Churches (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 2014), p. 196.

Photo © Martin Crampin, Imaging the Bible in Wales