St George and the Dragon


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reference number: RI_021

19th century

tempera on wooden panel

35.8 x 31 cm

Exhibitions

Icons and Easter Eggs Of Imperial Russia, St Mary’s College of California, Moraga, 18 March – 30 April 1995

Russian Art of the Nineteenth Century: Icons and Easter Eggs. A Postmodern Perspective, Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, 16 April – 28 July 1996

Bibliography

A. Ruzhnikov, A. Harlow, Icons and Easter Eggs Of Imperial Russia, St Mary’s College of California, Moraga, 1995, no. 28, illustrated in colour p. 7

C.L. Carter, <Russian Art of the Nineteenth Century: Icons and Easter Eggs. A Postmodern Perspective, Milwaukee, 1996, no. 22, p. 54, illustrated p. 8, illustrated in colour p. 17

 

Painted in the miniature style, the icon shows St.George on a white charger piercing the winged dragon with his lance. Above is an angel crowning St.George with a martyr’s crown. On the right side is a stylised tower representing the city, from the gates of which the princess watches the battle. At the top right corner, from a segment of heaven emerges the hand of Christ blessings the saint. The scene is painted against a mountainous landscape painted with muted, earthy colours. The borders are painted with the figures of two family saints: St.Timothy (on the left) and St.Elizabeth (on the right). The upper border bears the calligraphic inscription in Old Slavonic reading: “Glory to Great George rescuer of the town and young maiden from the dragon”.

 

The story of St.George and the dragon is described in The Golden Legend. According to the source, the event took place in Cappadocia in the third century. The local inhabitants were pagans who worshipped a terrible dragon that lived in a lake nearby. To appease the dragon every day two lambs were sacrificed, to further please the creature humans were offered, and lots were drawn to choose the victims. On one occasion, the daughter of the local ruler drew the unlucky lot. As it happened, St.George promised to kill the dragon provided that the citizenry of the city become Christians. He engaged the dragon in mortal combat and slew it. The king and all of his people were so awed by the power of the Lord that they converted to Christianity.

 

From the beginning, the story of St.George killing the dragon has been understood symbolically, reaching its iconographic climax in the 15th and 16th centuries. St.George killing the dragon is one of the most popular subject matters of Christian art. In Russia, one of the earliest depictions of the miracle is preserved on the walls of the church of St.George in Staraya Ladoga (circa 1167) near Novgorod.

 

St.George is a patron saint of Cappadocia, Georgia, Muscovy and England, where his cult was introduced by Crusaders returning from Palestine. His principal feast day is April 23.

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