The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Paolo Pagani, Pinacoteca di Como on loan from Guglielmo and Marianna Poletti

There is a new painting on display in the Pinacoteca di Como’s Salone d’Onore – ‘The Fall of the Rebel Angels’ (1690s)  by Paolo Pagani. This large canvas joins two other major works in the same room both taken from the destroyed church of San Giovanni in Pedemontana – namely ‘The Triumph of the Archangel Michael’ (1630) by Carlo Nuvolone and ‘The Fall of the Rebel Angels’ (1608-9) by Il Morazzone. All three represent the Archangel Michael driving the devil and his rebel angels out of heaven. The Pagani painting is on a five year loan to the gallery from its owners, Guglielmo and Marianna Poletti. 

The Triumph of the Archangel Michael by Carlo Nuvolone, Pinacoteca di Como

Who Was Paolo Pagani?

Detail from Pagani’s ‘Fall of the Rebel Angels’

Paolo Pagani was born 1655 in Castello, a district of Valsolda on the northeastern shores of Lake Lugano. He moved to Venice where he studied art. He teemed up with other skilled craftsmen from Northern Italy to decorate palaces and churches throughout Austria, Germany, Poland and Moravia. In 1690 he was invited to Vienna to work in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. Following his successful career in Eastern Europe, he returned in 1696 to the town of his birth, Castello in Valsolda.

On his return he immediately set about decorating the vault of the local  Chiesa di San Martino thereby gifting his birth town with some of Italy’s finest late baroque decoration. He also had the good fortune to develop a close friendship with his namesake but no relation, the Marquis Cesare Pagani of Milan. Cesare Pagani was a wealthy and well connected diplomat with the ambition to fill his extensive villa in Milan with a large collection of art. He commissioned many of Paolo Pagani’s later works including the ‘The Fall Of the Rebel Angels’  now on display in Como’s art gallery.

One of the scenes in the series of frescoes adorning the vault of the Chiesa di San Martino in Castello, Valsolda.

Cesare Pagani’s marriage had not produced any male heirs to whom he could bequeath his considerable fortune. In 1691 he had adopted a five year old slave boy of Turkish origin whom he had converted to Christianity and baptised as Michael choosing this name ‘for my particular devotion I openly profess for that glorious archangel [Michael] – my very clement protector’.  However his adopted son Michael may not have met the rigorous requirements of noble ancestry to qualify as a beneficiary. Cesare Pagani then turned to his friend Paolo Pagani’s son Angelo, born in 1694 in Moravia as a suitable person to inherit his lands and property. But for Angelo to qualify, his father had to provide proof of his family’s noble heritage.   Either by fortune or design, Paolo Pagani unearthed documentation during the renovation of his house in Castello that showed that the Castello Paganis were related to three pagan African kings who conveniently converted to Christianity on moving to Italy. This was sufficient proof for Angelo to become Cesare Pagani’s principal beneficiary on the Marquis’s death. One of the scenes of Paolo Pagani’s frescoes in the Chiesa di  San Martino depicts the conversion of pagans to Christianity.

The Cult of Michael, Archangel

The 10th century Sacra di San Michele in the Val Di Susa, Piedmont.

Michael is a saint of considerable importance to Islam and Judaism as well as Christianity. For Muslims, Michael alongside the Archangel Gabriel instructed Mohammed in the Koran. He is also deemed the protector of Jewish people. In Christian mythology he is ‘the supreme ruler of the heavenly army and warrior against the enemies of the Church’. He was particularly venerated in our part of Italy by the Lombards and their Queen Teodolinda who adopted Michael in the 6th century. They compared him with their pagan god, Odin. 

A number of impressive monasteries dedicated to Michael have been built along an ancient ley line running from Ireland to Israel known as the Sacred Line. These include Mount Saint Michael in Cornwall, Mont St. Michel in Normandy, the 10th century Sacra di San Michele in the Piedmontese Val di Susa and the 6th century Monte Sant Angelo on the Gargano peninsula in Puglia. 

‘Defend Us in Battle’ – the name given to the prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII calling on the Archangel Michael to protect the Catholic church from Satan. This plaque is from the St. Michael Chapel in Como’s Bishops Palace.

A prayer dedicated to the Archangel Michael was composed by Pope Leo XIII in 1884 following a mystical experience which left the Pope horrified by a vision of ranks of triumphant demons gathering in the skies above Rome like a flock of crows ready to attack the city. An abbreviated form of this prayer known as ‘Defende nos in proelio’ (Defend us in battle) was recounted on bended knee at the end of Catholic Holy Mass from that date up until 1964 (and used, of course, during exorcisms). It reads:

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle,and be our help  against the wickedness and the snares of the devil. We supplicants beg you: may the Lord command him! And you, Prince of the celestial militias, with the power that comes to you from God, drive Satan and the other evil spirits that roam the world to perdition of souls into hell.

This literal belief in the existence of Satan was even reiterated by Pope John Paul in 1994 when he stated that even if the prayer was no longer recited at the end of mass ‘I invite you all to not forget it but to recite it to obtain help in the battle against the forces of darkness and against the spirit of this world.’

Paolo Pagani’s Museum, Castello

‘The Descent of Christ into Hell’ 1690s by Paolo Pagani, Paolo Pagani Museum, Castello in Valsolda

Works by Paolo Pagani can be seen in museums and art galleries around Europe but, other than Milan, the best place to view his works locally is in the Museo Casa Pagani in Castello.  If you have previously viewed his ‘Fall of the Rebel Angels’ in Como then you will immediately be struck by the similarity between this and the largest canvas in the Castello Museum depicting ‘The Descent of Christ into Hell’. The colour palette is very similar with the preponderance of flesh tones to accompany so many representations of the human physique. In both studies he uses light and shade to distinguish between the forces of good and evil. And of course, both canvases are of similar size and visual impact. In fact they were both commissioned by Cesare Pagani to adorn his Milanese home. 

‘Nymph Surprised by Satyrs’ by Paolo Pagani, Paolo Pagani Museum, Castello.

Detail from ‘The Nymph Surprised by Satyrs’

The whole first floor of the museum is dedicated to his works with most of the other canvases dedicated to religious subjects with the exception of a ‘Nymph surprised by Satyrs’. This depicts a voluptuous nymph depicted with rich skin tones not seemingly too bothered by the voluptuous attention of two satyrs with the elder of the two looking particularly lecherous.  Here may lie the clue to the sort of satanic temptation that Pagani’s patron, Cesare Pagani, called upon Saint Michael to help him resist! 

Whilst in Castello, it is also well worth visiting the Chiesa di San Martino to view its frescoed vault. The church is accessible during the museum’s opening hours.  

Further Reading

Early Lombardy Baroque is well represented in Como by the works of Morazzone and later on by the local Recchi brothers. Read Como and Early Lombardy Baroque or Early Lombardy Baroque: Fratelli Recchi for more information about them.

Visiting Chiasso

‘The Martyrdom of Saint Vitale’ by Paolo Pagani in the Chiesa di San Vitale in Chiasso

If in Como but without time to visit Valsolda, another of Pagani’s works can be seen in the Church of St. Vitale in Chiasso. This is entitled ‘ The Martyrdom of St. Vitale’ and was painted for the benefit of Baldasar Fontana, a sculptor with whom Pagani collaborated closely when both were working in Moravia and Poland. Fontana was from Chiasso.

Visiting Cracow

The Church of Saint Anne in Cracow, Poland decorated by Baldasar Fontana and Paolo Pagani.

The interior of the Church of St. Anne in Cracow was decorated with sculpture and plasterwork by Baldasar Fontana and with frescoes by Paolo Pagani. Fontana took responsibility for managing the entire project. Their partnership is just another example of the way itinerant artists and craftsmen from the Como region migrated across Eastern Europe to decorate palaces and churches during the Baroque period. Read Stucco and Scagliola – Two of Como’s Baroque Specialities for more information on some of the artists from the Val D’Intelvi  employed in this way.