St. Michael

It shows the Saint in complete armour, holding his sword above his head and a tiny round shield in his left hand, about to strike a horned dragon upon whom he tramples, who represents Satan. Images of the Archangel Michael vanquishing the Devil, both painted and sculpted and from the monumental to the miniature, were immensely popular in the Gothic period. However ivory statuettes of the saint are not common. A Spanish origin, most likely in the medieval Crown of Aragon (comprising Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia), is probable, notwithstanding the difficulties of separating Spanish works of art of this type and date from their Netherlandish models. The V&A ivory shares its dramatic pose, with sword-holding arm lifted high above the head, with Bartolomé Bermejo's painted panel of 1468, now in the National Gallery in London, once the central panel of an altarpiece formerly in the church of San Miguel in Tous, near Valencia. Another small but unusual detail links the two images: the devil's limbs in both cases issue from beasts' heads.