The astonishing piece, comprising more than sixty sculpted figures, evocatively embodies the eternal struggle between good, represented by the archangel Michael with his flaming sword, and the forces of evil spearheaded by Lucifer, who leads the rebel angels.
In 1765 Giovan Battista Rossetti, in his Description of the paintings, sculptures and architecture of Padua, lists it as one of the main attractions of Padua, describing it as “to say the least wonderful, not tempted or even from ancient Greece“. The remarkable technical mastery shown by the sculpture continued to amaze people throughout the 19th century, even beyond local borders. The theologian Antonio Rosmini describes it several times in his epistolary.
