Attributed to ANTONIO BALESTRA (Verona, Italy, 1666 - 1740); Italian School; 18th century "Saint Michael the Archangel. Oil on canvas. Re-coloured. It has a period frame and slight repainting. Measurements: 65 x 71 cm; 62 x 81 cm (frame). In this painting of purely baroque language is represented the archangel St. Michael, dressed with armour, with big wings spread out. From its technical characteristics the work is related to the Italian painter and engraver from the Republic of Venice, Antonio Balestra, who left his native Verona for Rome in 1690, where he became a pupil of Carlo Maratta, himself trained by Annibale Carracci. The young painter soon made himself at home among both ecclesiastical and public patrons and became known and appreciated in both Venice and Verona. His studies with Maratta directed him towards the academic and classicist style cultivated by many of the 17th-century Veronese artists. In 1694 he was appointed a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome after winning the prize in its drawing competition with the "Fall of the Giants". Other examples of his production during this Roman period are the "Trinity" in Castelvecchio and "The Wealth of the Earth" in Trento. He returned to Venice in 1696, settling in the capital of the Republic until 1718. There he executed important works such as the altarpiece for the church of the Jesuits (1704), the "Transitus of Saint Joseph" for the church of San Marziale, the "Nativity" for the church of San Zaccaria and the altarpiece of Saint Osvaldo for the church of San Stae, the latter work consolidating his reputation as a great master in Venice. His fame in the Republic was reinforced by the Annunciation in the church of Santa Maria di Nazareth, which reveals his extraordinary compositional ability and innovative use of colour. During these years Balestra also painted two canvases for the Scuola Grande del Carmine, another two for the Scuola Grande della Carità and two interesting paintings in Verona, "Saint John the Baptist in the Desert" and another "Annunciation", similar to the one he painted for Venice, but which reveals an already Rococo use of colour. Particularly important in his career were the commissions he received from the most important Venetian noble families, including the Barbaro and Barbarigo families, for whom he painted in collaboration with Ricci and Piazzetta, the most prominent Venetian painters of the day. He was also associated with the Elector of Mainz, Franz Lothar von Schönborn, for whom he painted his series of "Fables", works in a typically eighteenth-century Arcadian style that differed from the mythological themes customary until then. After this period he worked in Padua for the church of Santa Giustina between 1717 and 1718, where his two canvases depicting the martyrdom of Saints Cosmas and Damian, considered his greatest masterpiece due to the grandiosity and theatricality of the scenes, are still preserved today. In these works he displays a mature, composed style, cold and independent of the trend that was emerging between the 17th and 18th centuries. Balestra then returned to Verona, where he worked mainly for the church but also received commissions from other cities such as Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua. His works of these years are simpler and more conventional, dominated by broad diagonal lines, foreshortenings and very light tones. In his later works, such as those painted for Sanvitale in Parma and Schulemburg, he concentrated on scenes narrated in large architectural settings whose theatrical character is emphasised by the eloquent dramatic gestures of the small figures. In this last period he also changed his palette, moving towards cooler tones, demonstrating the artist's constant ability to renew his language. Balestra's last work was the frescoes he executed for the villa of his friend Alessandro Pompei. Dimensions 65 x 71 cm; 62 x 81 cm (frame).