# St Michael Weighing Souls; Baptism of Christ [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MASTER H.L.]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Wood ## Commentary The picture shows the left wing of the altarpiece in the church at Niederrotweil. St Michael weighs a soul and at the same time deals a mortal blow to a horrid devil - recalling Netherlandish grotesques and the imagery of engravers - who tries to pull down the scale on the side of doom. Unusual in sculpture, the scene shows its creator to be gifted with fantasy and a remarkable feeling for life. His predilection for faithfully detailed faces and gnarled hands and feet illustrates a typically German concern for minutiae and didactic realism. The Baptism scene takes on a vivid emotional intensity through the surface agitation provided by wind-flung draperies, twisting locks of hair, and a crowd of exulting putti among whom the small image of God the Father is almost lost. ## Related artworks - [Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Altarpiece]() - [Coronation of the Virgin \(detail\)]() - [Coronation of the Virgin]() - [St Christopher]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()