War in heaven

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Marble Faun, one of the characters, a painter, expresses this sharply critical opinion of Guido Reni’s 1635 painting The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan:

“Is it thus that virtue looks the moment after its death struggle with evil? No, no; I could have told Guido better. A full third of the Archangel’s feathers should have been torn from his wings; the rest all ruffled, till they looked like Satan’s own! His sword should be streaming with blood, and perhaps broken halfway to the hilt: his armor crushed, his robes rent, his breast gory; a bleeding gash on his brow, cutting right across the stern scowl of battle! He should press his foot hard down upon the old serpent, as if his very soul depended upon it, feeling him squirm mightily, and doubting whether the fight were half over yet, and how the victory might turn! The battle never was such child’s play as Guido’s dapper archangel seems to have found it.”

The Christian’s personal struggle against temptation is indeed a strenuous one. At times the fight is desperately hard, as if Satan has nearly gained the victory. A painting depicting the Christian’s fight against sin should, if the artist wished to be truthful, indeed depict the struggle and the strain of this battle. But what encouragement, what sense of hope, would such an image be able to impart?

Hawthorne’s character is wrong: Guido’s picture isn’t depicting the fight against sin from a purely human perspective. Instead, this image is meant to portray the power that God Himself wields against darkness and the devil—­a power which is infinite and always wins.

Twice in Scripture, the archangel Michael confronts Satan. The first is a purely verbal quarrel: The Book of Jude tells of a curious incident in which Michael argued with Satan over the disposition of the body of Moses. Michael himself knew that on his own he had no strength to defeat Satan: “The Lord rebuke you!” he says to the devil, refraining from bringing an accusation on his own authority.

Reni’s Self-Portrait. Fine Art Images / Heritage Images via Getty Images

Guido’s painting does not depict this particular event in the career of Michael. Rather it dramatizes the passage in Revelation 12 in which we are given an account of a heavenly battle between the forces of light and darkness. “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.”

Michael, with the full authority of God behind him, is able to quickly rout Satan and his minions; the passage only gives the barest hint that there was even a struggle at all. This is the event Guido chose to depict: a triumphant angel, the messenger of God and champion of His people, against whose awesome might even Satan quails in defeat.

Seeing this image of Michael triumphant serves to remind the Christian that the battle is already won. Although the day-to-day skirmishes can often seem insurmountable, victory is assured in the end. The power of darkness, strong as it may seem, is insignificant compared with the salvific majesty of God. Guido’s picture dramatizes this assurance superbly, with its vigorous angel Michael arrayed in bright blues and reds towering with poised sword to deal the final blow against the cowering devil crowded into a lower corner of the frame. Evil simply doesn’t stand a chance against the omnipotent power of God.

Interestingly enough, Hawthorne himself acknowledges this interpretation of the painting in a later passage in The Marble Faun. Toward the end of the novel, another character is meditating on the painting’s significance as a symbol for Christian virtue. “She felt, while gazing at it, that the artist had done a great thing for the cause of Good. The moral of the picture, the immortal youth and loveliness of Virtue, and its irresistible might against ugly Evil, appealed as much to Puritans as Catholics.” Guido’s painting does indeed serve aptly as a universal symbol of the assurance that all God’s people share—that God is able to defeat even our worst enemy.