Saint Michael and the Angels at War with the Devil

A horizontal panel depicting the war in heaven from the Book of Revelation. On the left, angels wearing dark armor and carrying shields with red crosses advance through the clouds. To the right, grotesque, bat-winged demons are driven back into a dark abyss filled with smoke and flames.

This depiction of the angelic hierarchy reflects the influence of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's 'De Coelesti Hierarchia,' a foundational text for Renaissance Neoplatonists like Marsilio Ficino who sought to map the spiritual structure of the cosmos. The scene represents the struggle between divine order and material chaos, a central theme in the purification of the soul.