Saint Michael the Archangel

Author: João Pinto Ribeiro

Date: 19^th century, 1^st half

Material: Silver

Dimensions (cm): H 43,5 x W 16,2

Provenance: Guimarães, Colegiada de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira

Inventory No.: MAS O 24

 

Saint Michael, the leader of the celestial army and defender of the Church, is represented with open wings, wearing a tunic down to the knees and a mantle down to the feet. He wears sandals and, on the hair, there are three feathers decorated with red stones. The eyes are made of glass.

According to tradition, this image was probably made with the silver obtained from the melting of an angel offered by Dom João I to the Colegiada de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira and ordered to be melted by its canons in the first decades of the 19^th century. It is a work with an 18^th-century stamp, although it was made in the 19^th century.