Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael.

Raphael first visited the subject of the archangel Michael at the behest of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino.

The commission is believed to express appreciation to Louis XII of France for conferring the Order of Saint Michael on Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Guidobaldo's nephew and heir.

[3] This painting can be tied to a collected group of elite people in France known as the Order of Saint Michael.

Michael stands on top of the devil with one leg while holding up his spear to deliver a strike to his head.

Raphael had great skill in portraying space through his compositions and it wasn't always tied to having a distant background.

Regardless of the sense of space created, Raphael had an ability to juxtapose the vastness of nature with man's dominion over it.

The way in which the Archangel's body is depicted with arm raised and foot planted on the back of Satan gives a sense of motion.

Raphael had the privilege of accessing works by Leonardo and Michelangelo as many of their artworks were commissioned by Florentine patrons.

"[7] Even though Raphael had success, he had his differences amongst the elites of his time including popes, cardinals, literati, and dukes.

According to the art historian Giorgio Vasari, Raphael created his own style of painting by learning from previous masters and applying it to his works.

He adopted a certain style that emphasized musculature within the human form and a sense of tension created with intense compositions.

[6] Raphael's contemporary, Sebastiano del Piombo, wrote to Michelangelo in July of the year the painting was completed to complain of the coloring of the work, suggesting that the figure looked smoky or made of iron because of the exaggerated contrast between the two sides.

[8] This may have been the hand of Giulio Romano, who according to the art historian Eugène Müntz overused black in a heavy-handed fashion to "obtain a more powerful effect.