A bronze model of St Michael overcoming the devil after John Flaxman, 1903.

The devil formed as a bearded man with serpents tail, raised on a domed base inscribed EXECUTED BY E. W. WYON AFTER THE ORIGINAL BY FLAXMAN. FOR THE ART UNION OF LONDON 1842, dark brown patination.

Notes:  Published: C. Avery and M. Marsh, 'The Bronze Statuettes of the Art Union of London; The Rise and Decline of Victorian Taste in Sculpture', Apollo, May 1985, pp. 328-337, fig. 1.

This bronze and the other, later example in this catalogue by J.A. Hatfield after J.H. Foley; were two of many models produced by the Art Union of London in the mid 19th century. The present example was the first model produced by the union in an attempt to improve the status and quality of bronze sculpture in England.