This is a sketch model for the marble group executed by Flaxman for the 3rd Earl of Egremont, which was completed, almost certainly, by Thomas Denman, Flaxman's brother-in-law and pupil, in 1826, and installed at Petworth House, Sussex, at some date after October 1827. The group was commissioned in 1817. A full-size plaster model that Flaxman exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1822 is at University College, London. Reproductions of St Michael overcoming Satan by William Wyon were commissioned by the Art Union and issued in 1844. A further small model is in Sir John Soane's Museum, London.

John Flaxman (1755-1826) was an English sculptor, designer and teacher. He was the most famous English Neo-classical sculptor of the late 18th century and the early 19th. He focused on monumental sculpture and church monuments and portrait busts. A large collection of his plaster models is held in the Strang Print Room, University College, London. He also made outline illustrations of Homer, Aeschylus and Dante. Many of those in his sketchbooks (now in the V&A) were drawn from the antique while he was in Italy. Furthermore he produced models for pottery and silver supplying the pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood among others. He thus can be considered as an important pioneer in the development of Industrial Design.