Terms and conditions of use
Saint George slaying the dragon
(c. 1430)
- Medium
- oil, tempera and silver leaf on wood panel
- Measurements
- 62.2 × 38.8 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- Florence, Tuscany, Italy
- Accession Number
- 2124-4
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1949
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- 14th - 16th Century Gallery - Painting & Decorative Arts
Level 1, NGV International - About this work
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The Florentine master Paolo Uccello is thought to have painted this panel around 1430 while in Venice, where he had been hired to restore the Byzantine mosaics of San Marco. The subject of St George and the dragon was an allegory about Christian conversion. According to Voragine’s Golden Legend (c.1250), St George rescued a pagan Libyan princess from being sacrificed to a dragon. Knocked to the ground and with his spear broken, George dispatched the monster by driving a sword between its scales. He then converted the Libyan people to Christ. It has been suggested that the popularity of this militaristic subject in Venice was linked to the city’s rising tensions with nearby Ottoman Turkey.
- Subjects (general)
- Allegory and Symbols Religion and Mythology
- Subjects (specific)
- castles (fortifications) dragons George, Saint (Christian character) God the Father (Christian character) halos (glories) horse (species) princesses Saint George Slaying the Dragon (Christian iconography)