The Fall of the Rebel Angels is a composition comprising around sixty figures carved from a single block of Carrara marble. The theme of the work is the battle of good against evil. The army of the good is captained by the Archangel Michael, a divine messenger, while the army of the bad is led by Lucifer, the rebel angel guilty of raising himself above God.

The work draws its inspiration from various biblical sources, the most important of which being the verses of the Apostle John in the Apocalypse, in which he recounts a ferocious battle fought in heaven, with Michael and his angels confronting Lucifer and his rebel companions who fall to Earth. This work, which was commissioned by Count Marc’Antonio Trento, a member of the Order of the Knights of Malta and of various academies in Padua, was originally to be found in Palazzo Trento, subsequently Palazzo Papafava, in Padua’s Prato della Valle.

For centuries the work was attributed to Agostino Fasolato, a sculptor whose life is little known. One of the oldest reports of the sculptural work was that of Giovambattista Rossetti who, in his Description of the sculptures, paintings and architecture of Padua , dated 1765, includes the work among the city’s principal attractions, classifying it as a “a truly incredible work, one that was not even attempted in Ancient Greece”. In 1858, the American writer Herman Melville spoke of the sculpture at a conference held in the city of Cincinnati, an event that goes to show how this sculpture continued to surprise people throughout the 19th century, even abroad. Subsequent studies have led to scholars doubting the idea that this was a work by Agostino Fasolato, due both to the absence of works produced by said sculptor, and by the presence of documents proving his role as stonemason or stone engraver, just like the numerous other men called Fasolato working the Padua area between the 17th and 18th centuries, and thus a person of more limited capacities than an actual sculptor.
The work is at Gallerie d'Italia - Vicenza .