BARTOLOMÉ BERMEJO

Painted in 1468, Saint Michael Triumphant over the Devil is the first documented work by Bartolome Bermejo, a 15th-century Spanish a rtist by whom only about 20 paintings are known. Acquired by the National Gallery in 1995, the painting depicts the Archangel Michae l defeating Satan, in the form of a hybrid monster, with Antoni Joan, feudal lord of Tous, kneeling nearby. The work is remarkable f or its mastery of the oil-painting technique, influenced by Netherlandish painting and unrivaled by Bermejo's contemporaries in Spai n.