Saint Michael and the Dragon

Artist Benjamin West (American, 1738-1820)

Date1797

DimensionsFrame: 58 1/2 × 31 3/8 × 2 1/2 in. (148.6 × 79.7 × 6.4 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1959.33

Not on View

Label TextThis canvas and the painting of St. Thomas à Becket to the right are designs for stained glass windows commissioned in 1797 by William Beckford (1760–1844) for Fonthill Abbey, his sprawling neo-Gothic house in Wiltshire, England. The St. Michael and the Dragon design was never made as a window, however. In a diary entry of September 29, 1787—his 21st birthday and the Feast of St. Michael—Beckford, who had been socially ostracized after two love affairs with men, hinted why he may have been drawn to the subject of the Archangel Michael’s battle with the dragon (the Devil): Mass was performed in my chapel this morning in honour of the valiant St. Michael. I assisted with apparent devotion, but could not help feeling all the while more sympathy for the old Dragon than becomes a pious Catholic. Alas, we are both fallen angels! Six years ago how triumphantly did I pass this festival at Fonthill, seated at the foot of my father’s statue, receiving the congratulations of the first personages in my nation, universally esteemed….Published ReferencesPublic Characters of 1805, London, VII, 1805, p. 561.

Barlow, J., Columbiad, a Poem, Philadelphia, 1808, p. 398.

"A Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq.," Supplement to La Belle Assemblée, IV, July 1, 1808, p. 14.

Galt, J., The Life, Studies and Works of Benjamin West Esq., London, 1820, II, p. 219.

Magnificent Effects at Fonthill Abbey, Wilts. to be Sold at Auction by Mr. Christie...Sept. 17-26, 1822, London, 1822, no. 89.

Rogers, M., Jr., "Benjamin West and the Caliph; Two Paintings for Fonthill Abbey," Apollo, LXXXIII, June 1966, pp. 420-425, fig. 2.

Montgomery Art Gallery, Pomona College, 18th Century Drawings from California Collections, Claremont, CA, 1976, p. 46, fig. 24 (cat. by D. Steadman).

Dillenberger, J., Benjamin West: The Context of His Life's Work, San Antonio, 1977, pp. 109, 150, 194, 209, fig. 75.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 110-112, fig. 7.

"New Accessions," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 5, no. 3, Autumn 1962, p. 66, repr.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April-June, 1962," Art Quarterly, vol. XXV, no. 3, Autumn 1962, p. 263, repr. p. 270.

Phillips, H., The Pictures and Miniatures at Fonthill Abbey, Catalogue...Paintings, Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, 1823, p. 259, no. 250 (St. Michael and the Dragon) and no. 251 (St. Thomas à Beckett).

Young, Mahonri Sharp, "From Howling Wilderness to Queensborough Bridge," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 496.

Staley, Allen, The Paintings of Benjamin West, New Haven, 1986, no. 408, pp. 388, 395-396, 400-401 repr.

Grubb, Nancy, Revelations: Art of the Apocalypse, New York, 1997, repr. p. 109, (col.); [repr. p. 208 (col.), in Tiny Folio edition].

Husch, Gail E., Something Coming: Apocalyptic Expectation and Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Painting, Hanover, NH, 2000, pp. 191, 193, fig. 61.

Buser, Thomas, Religious Art in the Nineteenth Century in Europe and America, Lewiston, NY, Edwin Mellen, 2002, bk. 2, p. 271.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, 1797, no. 242.

Allentown (PA) Art Museum, The World of Benjamin West, 1962, no. 25, repr.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Treasures for Toledo, 1964.

San Antonio Museum of Art, Revealed Religion: Benjamin West's Commissions for Windsor Castle and Fonthill Abbey, 1983, no. 39, pp. 58, 69, repr. p. 60.

New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, American Paintings from The Toledo Museum of Art, 1986.

Baltimore Museum of Art, Benjamin West: American Painter at the English Court, 1989, no. 45, pp. 89, 91, 115, repr. p. 88.

New York, Bard Graduate Center; London, The Dulwich Picture Gallery, William Beckford, 1760-1844: An Eye for the Magnificent, 2001-2002, no. 81, pp. 356-357, 422, 433, repr. p. 356 (col.).