BRONZE OF "SAINT MICHEL SLAYING THE DRAGON" AFTER EMMANUEL FREMIET
Sculpture in bronze with brown patina "Saint Michel slaying the dragon" after the original by Emmanuel FREMIET. It represents the winged Saint raising his sword in the air to bring it down on the dragon which climbs on the pedestal of the statue. He is dressed in armour with a coat of mail, a bulging helmet and a tunic floating around him. In his left hand, he holds a small shield with a point. His head is surrounded by a halo. This very detailed work shows great chiselling. The whole rests on a pedestal in Marble. Model in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
Emmanuel Fremiet was a celebrated 19th-century sculptor, particularly since the installation of his Joan of Arc at the Place des Pyramides in Paris in 1874. He founded a new form of "historical realism", combining meticulous attention to detail with a veritable quest for archaeology, meticulously depicting iconographic subjects from the Middle Ages. In 1894, he was chosen to create the statue to crown the spire of Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey. It was his 50cm statuette of Saint-Michel, created in 1879 for commercial purposes, that was selected by the architect to be enlarged to 2.20m in height. Its aesthetics and "historical realism" were a perfect match for Viollet-Le-Duc's new vision of historical monuments, in search of architectural reconstructions.
19th century, Circa: 1890
Dim: W:33cm, D:20cm, H:63cm.
Base dimensions: W: 16 cm; D: 16 cm
Condition report: In good condition. light wear.
