Kansas City is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is home to the Nelson-Atkins Museum, an art gallery known for its neoclassical architecture and its collection of Asian and European art where works by Caravaggio, Cranach the Elder, Eugène Delacroix, Vincent van Gogh are preserved.
The Museum exhibits a sculpture of the Fall of the Rebel Angels, by an Italian artist, made from a single block of ivory at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In its complexity and astonishing display of technical skill, this ivory recalls the taste of the Mannerist period, but its lightness and virtuosity are also characteristic of Rococo. In the upper part, the artist has represented the Trinity, with God the Father, Christ the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. In the center, St. Michael wields his sword, and a team of angels drives Satan’s army out of heaven. As described in the Book of Revelation (12:7-9), the rebellious angels fall towards Hell below, symbolized by the Leviathan with its mouth wide open at the bottom right.
