Peruvian Viceroyalty School; XVIII century.

Peruvian Viceroyalty School; XVIII century.
"San Miguel Archangel".
Huamanga polychrome stone.
It has slight flaws.
Measurements: 32 x 14,5 x 8 cm.
Sculpture made in a type of alabaster from Peru, the Huamanga stone. In viceregal times the devotional sculptures proliferated in this material, which substituted the western marble. Huamanga stone carving was a characteristic artistic manifestation of Ayacucho. San Miguel Arcángel has been carved, in a figure of half bulk, destined to a frontal vision. He rises on a richly worked base. He wears a military attire of a knight, inspired by the attire of the Roman militias. From the posture of the right arm, it can be deduced that he was carrying a spear. The cloths flutter around the figure, giving it a certain dynamism. Aesthetically the work presents a great similarity with the sculpture of San Miguel, made in Huamanga, which belongs to the collection of the Museum of America. In the 17th century, Peruvian sculpture underwent a special development when it began a native tradition based on the free reinterpretation of European models imported by the Jesuit missions. The Italian and Spanish influence of the Baroque resulted in its own imagery. Quito was one of the main artistic centers.
According to tradition, St. Michael is the head of the heavenly militia and defender of the Church. Precisely for this reason he fights against the rebellious angels and the dragon of the Apocalypse. He is also psychopomp, that is to say, he leads the dead and weighs the souls on the day of the Last Judgment. Scholars have linked his cult to that of several gods of antiquity: Anubis in Egyptian mythology, Hermes and Mercury in classical mythology, and Wotan in Norse mythology. In the West, the cult of St. Michael began to develop from the 5th and 6th centuries, first in Italy and France, and then spreading to Germany and the rest of Christendom. The churches and chapels dedicated to him are innumerable around the year 1000, in connection with the belief that on that date the Apocalypse would arrive. His temples are often located on high places, since he is a celestial saint. The kings of France gave him a particular veneration from the 14th century, and the Counter-Reformation made him the head of the church against the Protestant heresy, giving a new impulse to his cult. St. Michael the Archangel is a military saint, and therefore patron saint of knights and of all trades related to arms.