Beware of the Ides of March!

March 15—the date of Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 B.C.—was further immortalized by William Shakespeare. In the play Julius Ceasar, a soothsayer warns the would-be emperor that the fifteenth of this month may be hazardous to his health when he speaks the ominous words, "Beware the ides of March."

Take care today, and with luck, you won't end up at the wrong end of a sword, like the Devil in this folk art carving Saint Michael the Archangel and the Devil,by George López.

George López was born in Cordova, New Mexico, in 1900, the son of José Dolores López. Like many members of his family, he continued the santo carving style of his father. Although George remained faithful to the style of unpainted carving originated by his father—now called the "Cordova style"—he expanded his father's repertoire of religious figures. Saint Michael the Archangel (San Miguel Arcangel) is the protector of the just, the opponent of Satan, the patron of soldiers, and the guardian of young children. Images of Saint Michael are found in all periods of Hispanic New Mexican carving and painting. George López's version is particularly imaginative in depicting the devil as half snake and half insect-dragon, with pointed beard and sharp claws. López does not consider his carvings of saints holy unless a priest has blessed them. If they have not been blessed, carvings such as Saint Michael cannot properly be called "santos."

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: George Lopez (1900–1993), Saint Michael the Archangel and the Devil,about 1955–56, carved aspen and Palo Duro (mountain mahogany), 48 x 33 x 39 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.