Saint George and the Dragon with Scenes
Alyona Knyazeva
2011
Russian
Egg tempera on wood
Museum of Russian Icons R2011.102
The emperor Diocletian (244-311) sought to eliminate Christianity and he required that all soldiers make sacrifices to the Roman gods. When Saint George publically denounced the emperor, he was arrested and endured a series of brutal punishments.
At the end of each torture, Diocletian's thugs offered George a chance at freedom if he renounced his faith-they even tried to bribe him with wealth and honors-but he refused every time and was eventually beheaded. These events line the border of this icon, and in the final scene a man is healed by an icon of Saint George. The main part of the icon depicts George's legendary fight with the dragon.
The Miracle of Saint George and the Dragon,
also called "The Black George,"
1400s (early)
Novgorod, Russia
Egg tempera on wood
British Museum 1986,0603.1
According to legend, Saint George (died ca. 303), a warrior from central Turkey, discovered a princess who had been offered as a sacrifice to appease an angry dragon. George skewered the dragon and hauled it to the princess' village, telling her terrified subjects that he would destroy the monster if they became Christians.
The rugged symbolism and lesson in faith made icons of Saint George popular, but they typically depict the saint on a white horse (as seen in the next room). Here, however, he rides a remarkable black steed. The object's history is also unusual. Discovered in 1959 in a small village in northwest Russia, the panel had been repainted for use as a barn window shutter.
Conservators removed many coats of paint, including a folk image from the 1700s and a layer from the 1600s, before discovering the saint. Owned by the wife of a dissident Russian author, the icon travelled to Western Europe when the couple was allowed to leave the Soviet Union in 1973.
The Miracle of St George and the Dragon
ca. 1800-1850
Palekh, Russia
Egg tempera on wood
British Museum 1998,0605.16
This 19th-century icon of Saint George demonstrates the influence of Western art on Russian iconography. Early icons show Saint George fighting a wormlike dragon or serpent, but later iconographers began to give their beasts larger bodies, claws, and wings-features more common in Western depictions of dragons.
The Miracle of St George and the Dragon
1800s (mid)
Russia
Egg tempera on wood
British Museum 1998,1104.2
The artist who made this Saint George in the 1800s expanded the traditional iconography by including the town that George rescued and a full representation of Christ, seen blessing George from the sky. Also shown are the king and queen of the town who look on from a tower while their daughter holds onto the dragon with a rope.
The Miracle of St George and the Dragon
16th Century
Gesso, wood
1998,1105.3
For the iconography see cat. no. 1. Stylistically and technically the icon is similar to an early 16th-century icon in the Russian Museum, St Petersburg (Likhachov, Laurina and Pushkariov 1980, 320, no. 176 and pl. 176).
The Miracle of St George and the Dragon
Early 16th Century
Russia
R2003.5
Unknown, The Miracle of St George and the Dragon
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