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St Michael's Victory over the Devil is a 1958 bronze sculpture by Jacob Epstein, displayed on the south end of the east wall outside of the new Coventry Cathedral, [1] above the steps leading up from Priory Street to the cathedral's entrance and beside the stained glass of John Piper's bowed baptistry window. The cathedral is dedicated to St Michael.
The sculpture symbolises the victory of good over evil, and depicts a winged angel with spear, standing with arms and legs spread above the bound figure of the horned devil lying supine. The larger than life statue stands some 25 ft (7.6 m) high, with the angel's wings spreading 23 ft (7.0 m). For the face of the angel, Epstein made busts of his daughter Kitty's two husbands, Lucian Freud and Wynne Godley, and selected Godley as his model.
Epstein was first asked to make a maquette, a small model about 18 in (46 cm) high. He made several preliminary studies in plasticine and bronze, and had started to work on the main work by the time his commission was approved in 1957. Reportedly, some members of the cathedral reconstruction committee objected to Epstein being commissioned, with one complaining "But he is a Jew", to which the architect Basil Spence responded "So was Jesus Christ". A similar controversy had arisen before, when Epstein created his floating lead statue of the Virgin Mother and Holy Child for the Convent of the Holy Child in Cavendish Square, London (now the offices of the King's Fund).
The sculpture was one of the last major works of art completed by Epstein before his death on 21 August 1959. It was cast in bronze and unveiled at the cathedral in 1961 by Epstein's widow, Kathleen.
A 53.6 cm (21.1 in) high bronze maquette was sold at Christie's in 2014 for £15,000. One maquette now resides in the chapel of Wesley House, Cambridge.
The Cathedral Church of Saint Michael, commonly known as Coventry Cathedral, is the seat of the Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese of Coventry within the Church of England. The cathedral is located in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The current acting bishop is Ruth Worsley and the current dean is John Witcombe.
Jacopo della Quercia, also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo.
Sir Jacob Epstein was an American and British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1910.
Siena Cathedral is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
The Piazza dei Miracoli, formally known as Piazza del Duomo, is a walled 8.87-hectare (21.9-acre) compound in central Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as an important center of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world. It was all owned by the Catholic Church and is dominated by four great religious edifices: Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistery, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Camposanto Monumentale. Partly paved and partly grassed, the Piazza dei Miracoli is also the site of the Ospedale Nuovo di Santo Spirito, which now houses the Sinopias Museum and the Cathedral Museum.
St. James Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral located at 804 Ninth Avenue in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Seattle and the seat of its archbishop, currently Paul D. Etienne. The cathedral is named for St. James the Greater, patron saint of the archdiocese, and is the third church in the territory presently known as the Archdiocese of Seattle to bear the name.
Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg, also known as Strasbourg Minster, is a Catholic cathedral in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. Although considerable parts of it are still in Romanesque architecture, it is widely considered to be among the finest examples of Rayonnant Gothic architecture. Architect Erwin von Steinbach is credited for major contributions from 1277 to his death in 1318, and beyond through his son Johannes von Steinbach, and his grandson Gerlach von Steinbach, who succeeded him as chief architects. The Steinbachs’ plans for the completion of the cathedral were not followed through by the chief architects who took over after them, and instead of the originally envisioned two spires, a single, octagonal tower with an elongated, octagonal crowning was built on the northern side of the west facade by master Ulrich Ensingen and his successor, Johannes Hültz. The construction of the cathedral, which had started in the year 1015 and had been relaunched in 1190, was finished in 1439.
The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, shown in a branching tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. It is the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a genealogy.
The Cathedral of St. James in Šibenik, Croatia, is a triple-nave Catholic basilica with three apses and a dome. It is the episcopal seat of the Šibenik diocese. It is also the most important architectural monument of the Renaissance in the entire country. Since 2000, the cathedral has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Orvieto Cathedral is a large 14th-century Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and situated in the town of Orvieto in Umbria, central Italy. Since 1986, the cathedral in Orvieto has been the episcopal seat of the former Diocese of Todi as well.
Quimper Cathedral, formally the Cathedral of Saint Corentin, is a Roman Catholic cathedral and national monument of Brittany in France. It is located in the town of Quimper and is the seat of the Diocese of Quimper and Léon. Saint Corentin was its first bishop.
The Basilica of Saint Clotilde is a basilica church located on the Rue Las Cases, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It was constructed between 1846 and 1856, and is the first example of a church in Paris in the neo-Gothic style.
Fenwick Justin John Lawson, ARCA is an English sculptor based in the north-east of England.
The exterior sculpture of Guildford Cathedral provides many artistic features, including sculptures, engravings and more by some of England’s finest sculptors and craftsmen of the 1950s and 1960s. The people who worked on the cathedral include: Edward Maufe, Alan Collins, Vernon Hill, Eric Gill, John Hutton, Dennis Huntley and others.
Morris Singer is a British art foundry, recognised as the oldest fine art foundry in the world. Its predecessor, Singer was established in 1848 in Frome, Somerset, by John Webb Singer, as the Frome Art Metal Works.
St Mary's Priory and Cathedral was a Roman Catholic institution in Coventry, England, founded in the 12th century by transformation of the former monastery of St Mary, and destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the early 16th century. It was located on a site north of Holy Trinity and the former St Michael's parish churches in the centre of the city, on a site bordered by Priory Row to the south, Trinity Street to the west, and the River Sherbourne to the north. Excavated remains from the west end of the cathedral are open to the public.
Winged Figure is a 1963 sculpture by British artist Barbara Hepworth. One of Hepworth's best known works, it has been displayed in London since April 1963, on Holles Street near the junction with Oxford Street, mounted on the south-east side of the John Lewis department store. It is estimated that the sculpture is seen by approximately 200 million people each year.
The Rush of Green, also known as Pan or The Bowater House Group, was the last sculpture completed by Jacob Epstein before his death at his home in Hyde Park Gate on 19 August 1959. The sculpture group includes a long-limbed family – father, mother, son and dog – rushing towards Hyde Park, encouraged by the Greek god Pan playing his pipes. It was cast in bronze posthumously and installed in 1961 on a plinth separating the carriageways of Edinburgh Gate beneath Bowater House. The sculpture was removed when Bowater House was demolished in 2006 and reinstalled near the building which replaced it, One Hyde Park, in 2010. The sculpture was granted Grade II listed status in January 2016, giving it legal protection against unauthorised alteration or removal.
Kathleen Eleonora "Kitty" Garman, later Kitty Epstein and Kitty Godley, was a British artist and muse. She was a model for her father Jacob Epstein, her first husband Lucian Freud, and Andrew Tift. In 2004 she had her own show at The New Art Gallery Walsall.