Emmanuel Fremiet
French, 1824-1910
Saint Michael Slaying the Dragon
Signed Fremiet on the ground next to St. Michael's left foot; inscribed F. Barbedienne Fondeur Paris around the base
Bronze with gold patina
Height including base 11 1/8 (28.4 cm)
In 1894 Fremiet was commissioned to design a figure of St. Michael to crown the spire of the abbey church of Mont Saint-Michel. Fremiet's first version of a figure of St Michael was a statuette intended for commercial reproduction, which he had produced 15 years earlier in 1879. Surprisingly, it was decided to enlarge this already executed model to a height of more than 7 feet (2.20 metres) for the abbey commission. Fremiet made a plaster model of that size, which was presented in the Salon of 1896. The final work was made of repoussé copper plates, which were hammered in the workshop and then mounted on an armature and riveted together. The resulting figure was relatively light, which made hoisting it to the top of the abbey church spire relatively easy to do. Three copies of the full-sized figure were made, one for the church of Saint Michel des Batignolles in Paris, and another for the fabricator's premises, which is now in the Musée d'Orsay.

C

Some scratches on the base.


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