This panel was removed sometime before 1917 from an elaborate altarpiece, or retablo, that dominated the east end of the church of Tamarite de Litera near Huesca in astern Spain, forming a wall of images that included over twenty-three scenes. The rest of the altarpiece was destroyed in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War. Part of the projecting outer edge of the altarpiece, commonly known as the dustguard, was composed of individual standing figures of saints, including this panel of the Archangel Michael, a image that in early sixteenth-century Spain commemorated the recent reconquest of Muslim-held territories and the expulsion of the Jews. More than one artist was required to paint all the panels and carve the frame of the immense retablo, a uniquely Iberian type of altarpiece. Documents indicate that Juan Ximénez collaborated with his father Miguel on the retablo for Tamarite de Litera, with Miguel working on the principle scenes and Juan on the dustguard. Other artists were also called in to work on this enormous project, which had to be completed in three years. Carl Brandon Strehlke, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 168.