Saint Michael Triumphs over the Devil

Bartolomé Bermejo's Saint Michael Triumphs over the Devil, painted in 1468 and now in the National Gallery, London, is one of the masterpieces of fifteenth-century Spanish painting. Bermejo, who was likely trained in the Netherlands, brought an extraordinary command of Flemish oil technique to Spain, producing works of startling realism and symbolic complexity. The painting shows Michael in resplendent golden armor treading on a fantastical demon.

Bermejo's virtuoso oil technique creates dazzling reflections on the archangel's gilded armor, while the demon beneath is rendered with an imaginative grotesquerie that reveals the painter's remarkable inventive powers.