Michael

Michael

Acrylic painting on canvas, measuring 48 x 48 inches

Michael is an archangel in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baha'i faith. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in 3rd and 2nd-century BC Jewish works, often but not always apocalyptic, where he is the chief of the angels and archangels, and the guardian prince of Israel, responsible for the care of Israel. Christianity adopted nearly all the Jewish traditions concerning him, and he is mentioned explicitly in Revelation where he does battle with Satan.

In this pop version of Rousselet the angelical face extracted from a study for a painting (La paix ramenant l'Abondance) by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun c. 1780, the idealized beauty of the head with its cool lustrous and porcelain-like skin tones correspond to Classicist ideas that contrasts the bright colors and layers of balls added by the artist as signature for his version of pop classics.