Saint George and the Dragon: two versions of the legend. Who did Saint George the Victorious fight with?
Raphael painted two paintings depicting the battle of St. George with the dragon. Both of them belong to the early period of his work.
Raphael. Saint George and the dragon. 1505-1506
Wood, oil. 28.5 x 21.5. National Gallery of Art, Washington
Paintings by Raphael on the theme of battles Saint Michael and St. George with the Dragon (two in the Louvre, and one in the National Gallery of Art in Washington) are related to each other both by theme (armed youth fighting a dragon) and stylistic elements. All three of these works date from the Florentine period. They reflect the stimulation that Raphael received from the great masters who worked in Florence or exhibited their paintings there. These three paintings by Raphael are dominated by the influence of Leonardo da Vinci, whose fighting warriors in The Battle of Anghiari (1505) provided a brilliant example of art on military themes (this work of Leonardo quickly collapsed due to the shortcomings of his experimental technique and now no longer exists) . But there is a clear connection with Flemish painting - especially with Hieronymus Bosch(bright light, and humanoid monsters, which are depicted in the painting with St. Michael) - suggests Raphael's memory of Urbino, where northern influences were always quite strong.
Raphael. Saint George and the Dragon. 1505-1506
These small panels indicate that Raphael during this period generalized the stylistic techniques he had already mastered and at the same time outlined painting tasks for development in the future.
Raphael. Saint George slaying the dragon (Little Saint George). 1503-1505
Wood, oil. 29 x 25 cm. Louvre Museum, Paris
Having received the Order of the Garter in 1504 English King Henry VII, Duke of Urbino Guido da Montefeltro, as a gift for the British monarch, ordered a painting from Raphael on the theme of the feat of St. George. Baldassare Castiglione, the author of the then famous treatise “On the Courtier,” was entrusted with delivering it to England. Until recently, it was believed that Henry VII was given that painting of Raphael with St. George, which is now kept in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. However, now researchers are arguing about which of the two paintings was sent to England.
St. George is one of the most popular Christian saints and the patron saint of England. The theme of his slaying of the dragon was a favorite among Renaissance artists. According to an ancient legend, a monster settled in a swamp outside the walls of a city and poisoned passers-by with its fiery breath. To appease the dragon, the city sent him several sheep a day. When there were no more sheep, the sons and daughters of local citizens began to be sent to the monster. The lot eventually reached the ruler's daughter. The Christian Saint George, who happened to be passing by, saw the girl in tears, entrusted himself to God and pierced the dragon with a spear. St. George's spear broke during the battle, but the brave knight continued the battle with the dragon with his sword. He killed him and saved the girl from death, who is shown running on the right in Raphael's painting.
“The Miracle of St. George about the Serpent” as an objective reality, or an anti-Darwinian analysis of the battle of the most famous ancient Roman Christian officer.
photo — Sergey Evdokimov
The author was prompted to write this article by the current situation in the Middle East, where once again Christian weapons are confronting the forces of world evil, and this is happening on the territory where the holy Great Martyr George once killed a certain dragon, although few people now remember about this moment. By the will of fate, Russia has recently been an active participant in the confrontation in this region, but many Russian military personnel heading there, if they know St. George, then in the most general terms, and some do not consider him a historical figure at all and, unfortunately, perceive his victory over the dragon like a legend. However, we will try to dispel their doubts.
The Great Martyr George, called the Victorious, is one of the most famous and revered saints by Orthodox Christians. People turn to him for various prayer needs, but first of all, people serving in the military pray for his intercession before God. This saint is also one of the special patrons of Christian weapons, and many victories of Christian troops on the battlefield are attributed, among other things, to his intercession.
Images of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, separated by 15 centuries.
Modern Orthodox image “The Miracle of St. George about the Serpent.”
Firstly, it must be said that the surviving sources are quite unanimous that St. George was a real historical figure; he was a high-ranking ancient Roman officer who served during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. According to one of probably the most historically accurate versions, the Great Martyr George was born into a family of Greco-Roman aristocrats in the small Palestinian town of Lydda (now Israeli Lod) at the end of the 3rd century. He died in 304 AD. for his faith in Christ, while still at a fairly young age, on the territory of ancient Cappadocia (Asia Minor) in the city of Nicomedia (now Turkish Ismid).
Here we would not like to repeat the story of the saint’s suffering before death, which usually occupies a significant part of his life, if only on the grounds that it seems somewhat strange to force, for example, someone to repeat again and again the description of the monstrous torment and death of some the person he dearly loved. Anyone can find easily accessible information about these events; we are especially interested in, perhaps, the most striking and memorable episode for contemporaries that happened during the saint’s earthly life - a battle in which he defeated a certain monstrous creature called a dragon or a large serpent.
For some reason, in our time, even many Christian believers (not to mention representatives of other religious denominations or atheists) believe that in fact there was no battle, and this is some kind of legendary symbol of the victory of the Christian faith over paganism. However, the high degree of realism and detail of the events described does not give reason to think so.
Some, being captive of the modern scientific worldview, built on the unproven ideas of Darwinism and based on the evolutionary picture of the world, suggest that the battle itself took place, but St. George struck some large lizard, such as a Komodo dragon, or even a crocodile. However, skeptics for some reason forget that there have never been huge monitor lizards in the Middle East, and Indonesia with the island of Komodo (where giant monitor lizards live) is very far away, and until the 19th century nothing was known about them in the Mediterranean. People in that region had been successfully hunting crocodiles for a long time, and it is unlikely that the killing of one, even a particularly large, crocodile could have influenced contemporaries in such a way that thousands of them subsequently became convinced Christians. Below we will try to understand this and still answer the question - so with whom did St. George the Victorious actually fight?
So, the Great Martyr George, being an officer in the Roman army and at the same time a deeply religious Christian, was once on business in the territory of modern Lebanon or Western Syria and came to one large city. Here the sources differ: according to one version, it was the city of Beirut (Berita), according to some other sources, perhaps we are talking about Aleppo (Aleppo) or another settlement in that region is indicated. There he learned that at some distance from this city there was a swampy lake, declared sacred by local pagan priests, on the shores of which a certain reptilian monster settled. And it would be good if it just lived there - so this creature at first hunted sheep and cows, which were kept by residents of the surrounding villages, and then, when the livestock ran out, it switched to feeding on people.
Apparently, the attempts of the local pagans to kill the dragon or drive away the monster with the help of magic did not yield results. The situation has reached the point of, in simple Russian language, simply insanity, since local priests (apparently acting in line with the ancient Babylonian tradition) decided that this animal is sacred, that it settled here by the will of the gods, and is itself the embodiment of some ancient deity , which means trying to kill him is a sin. But the main thing is that they convinced the entire people that in order to please the pagan deities, “in order for them to change their anger to mercy,” human sacrifices must be made to this terrible creature.
Over time, this abominable practice became “a pious tradition.” Even the Roman consul himself, who ruled this province (sometimes called “king” in some lives), agreed with her when the sacrificial lot fell on his relative or even daughter. Having learned about this, Saint George, who was in that area, having a chivalrous character, decided to show that the God of Christians is much stronger than any pagan monsters. In addition, the saint saw that, according to God’s Providence, it was he, “here and now”, who was given the opportunity to testify to the power of the Lord, and decided to correct the situation.
The panic-stricken pagans did not hear the entreaties of the few local Christians about the need to stop the sacrifices, and the future great martyr did not enter into battle with them, shedding the blood of his fellow citizens, even if they were committing lies. He decided to act differently. And when the procession with the next bound victim (probably it was the daughter of the imperial administrator) went out to the dragon’s habitat, he went with them, however, dressed in armor, armed and mounted a war horse. And as you can understand, it was not at all for the purpose of indifferently contemplating the terrible picture of the atrocity.
When people brought the doomed woman to the lair of the monster, and she crawled out, hoping to have a hearty lunch once again, Saint George suddenly found himself alone entered into a duel with a dragon on the lake shore, and killed " the serpent's fierceness", saving the life of a girl doomed by lot to a terrible sacrifice, thanks to which tens of thousands of residents of Lebanon and Western Syria were baptized en masse. This is how this battle is described in one text: “ ...having made the sign of the cross and calling on the name of the Lord, Saint George quickly and bravely rushed on his horse towards the serpent, tightly grasping the spear and, striking the serpent with force in the larynx, struck it and pressed it to the ground; The saint’s horse furiously trampled the snake underfoot..." It can be stated that the matter was decided by an unexpected and quick, perfectly executed attack (it was not for nothing that the Great Martyr George was a professional warrior).
Moreover, as the text of some biographies of the saint testifies, having struck, but not finished off the monster, the Victorious One dismounted from his horse, threw a rope over the defeated enemy, and with the words “ And this is your god? Well, look how I handle him!"He led the dragon to the city. And only there, at its walls, and not on the shore of the lake, in the presence of many people, the valiant saint cut off the monster’s head, glorifying the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and glorifying Him as the True and Only God, who grants victory to those who firmly trust in Him.
Thus, our Lord, through Saint George, showed his mercy to people, not only by defeating the deified monster, but by interrupting the disgusting tradition of human sacrifice. Moreover, it was through the demonstrated valor of St. George that many local residents accepted Orthodox Christianity (different sources give different figures - from many thousands to 24,000 and even up to 240,000; we are talking about a truly huge number of residents of the area, although it is clear that no one kept accurate records ). And so, thanks to the accomplished feat, a significant proportion of the local population realized the fallacy of belief in the power of pagan deities, and, rejecting the Middle Eastern cults, accepted faith in That God, who proved that He is stronger than all dark forces and their biological creatures.
However, despite the fact that the Roman authorities subsequently probably approved the very act of fighting and killing the “fierce serpent”, regarding it probably “as protecting the lives of the emperor’s subjects,” the spread of Christianity in the Late Roman Empire of the late 3rd century was considered not only “politically incorrect” ", but was expressly prohibited by law. And it was precisely the conversion of tens of thousands of Roman citizens to Christ through his feat that, apparently, was imputed to Saint George later, becoming one of the points of official accusation.
Late medieval German image (15th century) of St. George slaying a dragon.
Italian fresco 14th century. (artist Botticelli), depicting St. George slaying the serpent.
Modern paleontological reconstruction (art. Z. Burrian) - nothosaurus on the shore of the lake.
Seeing the medieval images of the battle of St. George with the serpent, and comparing them with the modern reconstruction of the nothosaurus discovered by paleontologists, one can only be amazed at the obvious identity of the predatory reptiles. Moreover, even the size of the notozar approximately coincides with the image of the dragon struck by St. George - it was not a giant dinosaur at all, although it was quite agile and clearly aggressively predatory, adult specimens of which reached a length of 3-4, sometimes 5 meters.
Despite the fact that the dragon or snake with which the saint fought differs among different artists, it seems that some of the most ancient images clearly go back to a single tradition, according to which this reptile had a huge head with a large mouth, a thin and relatively long neck , a short thick body on four legs and a rather long tail. There is no mention of any several heads, wings for flight, fiery breath or other fabulous attributes of the monster either in the most ancient images or in the lives of St. George. There is a complete feeling that we are looking at some very real animal, but one that was extremely rare even in Antiquity and is now completely extinct.
For a long time, numerous skeptics and even some Christian believers believed that there was nothing real in the story of the battle of St. George with the serpent. However, quite a long time ago, paleontologists during excavations found a species of dinosaurs, which received the name nothosaurs. These were quite large predatory creatures that lived in ancient times along the shores of lakes, seas or rivers, perhaps even leading a semi-aquatic lifestyle, and thus we can state that the living conditions - that of the dragon struck by St. George, that of the notosaurus - are similar. Apparently, a significant part of their diet was fish, but, first of all, nothosaurs were active predators, and attacked any prey that appeared in the immediate vicinity of their habitat (even the bones of young notosaurs were found with traces of teeth from larger individuals).
Since quite a lot of skeletons of these ancient predatory reptiles were found, scientists were able to fairly accurately restore their appearance. However, for a long time, for some reason, no one compared the images of the serpent on the images of St. George and the paleontological reconstructions of the notosaurus, which (in our opinion) coincide perfectly, down to the details (at least the author did not come across information about this).
It is somewhat surprising that some creationists (i.e., supporters of the concept of the creation of the world by God and opponents of materialistic Darwinism) currently believe that St. George fought with the dinosaur Baryonyx (first found, and then only in fragments, only in 1983, although by Our time knows several fairly complete skeletons of individuals of this species). However, this was hardly possible, because Although Baryonyx also lived along the banks of reservoirs, like Notosaurus, it had a slightly different appearance, moved mainly on two legs rather than four, and was much larger than Notosaurus, which means it was more difficult to hit it with a simple spear and then tie it up. and Saint George would hardly have been able to drag a half-dead “dragon” onto a rope into the city (unless we are talking, for example, about a young individual of Baryonyx). Whereas the nothosaurus, not only in its appearance, but even in size, ideally corresponds to the predatory reptile described in the life of the martyr knight and the surviving medieval images of the most famous battle of this Christian saint.
Reconstruction of the appearance of the largest dinosaur species found, Baryonyx walkeri, compared to the size of a human (height 1.8 m). However, it turned out that it was still a young individual, which means that the size of the peak specimens of this species was much larger.
A group of Baryonyx in its traditional habitat - on the shore of a pond. The versatility of this predator's diet is well demonstrated.
As you can see, an adult Baryonyx was, firstly, much larger than Notosaurus, and secondly, it walked mainly on two legs, and not on four, which means that it is unlikely that representatives of this particular species are depicted on icons with St. George (since its skull alone was up to 2 meters long, which means that St. Victorious could hardly drag a half-dead dinosaur of this species to the city residents on a rope, while the notosaurus corresponds perfectly in all respects).
And, as it may not seem surprising to skeptics, not only the size of the “dragon”, judging by the images of the battle of St. George, coincides with the size of the found skeletons of nothosaurs (usually reaching a length of 2-4 meters, sometimes 5-6 meters, like Nothosaurus giganteus), but even their habitat is identical (unlike Baryonyx, which reached a length of 9 meters, and whose bones were found only in England and Spain). Paleontologists, based on the finds of bone remains of notosars, believe that the habitat of this species of lizards included territories from North Africa and Southern Europe through the Middle East and Southern Russia all the way to Central Asia. Thus, it can be argued that the presence of notosaurus on the territory of modern Lebanon or Western Syria, where it was killed by an ancient Roman Christian cavalry officer, does not contradict the available scientific data on the habitat of this species.
However, for evolutionists who deny the Creation and the biblical picture of the development of our planet, there is one problem - from their point of view, the life time of the Holy Great Martyr George of Nicomedia and both Notosaurus and Baryonyx are separated by tens of millions of years, since in their opinion, dinosaur and man There was no way they could live in the same historical era. But this is true only if we rely on the concept of the development of the world, built on the erroneous theory of macroevolution of Charles Darwin and share the hypothetical chronology of evolutionists in billions of years. If we base our concept of the development of the world on the Book of Genesis, share the biblical chronology and recognize the Creation of our world by God (in the absence of macroevolution as a reliably recorded phenomenon), then it is not impossible that Saint George could kill one of the last nothosaurs in battle.
We will not examine here the many other known cases where the presence of living dinosaurs (one way or another causing harm and therefore usually killed by humans) is recorded in ancient Hebrew, ancient Babylonian, ancient Greek, ancient Roman or medieval European and Arabic documents, but we will simply emphasize that the case of the battle St. George the Victorious against the dinosaur is not isolated evidence. And accordingly, not only the life of St. George and some other Christian serpent-fighting saints, but numerous descriptions preserved in ancient sources of dinosaurs through the eyes of eyewitnesses as creatures living side-by-side with people, as well as their ancient images, give strong reasons to believe that some of these lizards survived a certain Global Cataclysm, called the Flood, and were exterminated by man already during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.
Modern icon of St. George
Thus, the available evidence suggests that the picture of the development of life on our planet proposed by evolutionists and presented by them as the only true picture of the development of life on our planet is conceptually erroneous, while the biblical picture of the world explains the existing seemingly paradoxical facts quite well.
And we hope that the same Power of the Lord, which in ancient times helped the Great Martyr George to crush the living embodiment of evil, will help Orthodox Christian soldiers in our time (if they firmly believe in Jesus Christ and trust in the intercession of St. George) to crush all their opponents.
- (Greek) or Dragon. Now it is considered a mythical monster, immortalized in the West only on seals, etc., like the heraldic griffin, and the Devil killed by St. George, etc. In fact, it is an extinct antediluvian monster. In Babylonian... ... Religious terms
DRAGON- (Greek) or Dragon. Now it is considered a mythical monster, immortalized in the West only on seals, etc., like the heraldic griffin, and the Devil killed by St. George, etc. In fact, it is an extinct antediluvian monster. In Babylonian antiquities... ... Theosophical Dictionary
- (Draco, Δράχων). The first legislator of Athens. Its laws were so strict that they prescribed death for every crime, which is why they were called bloody. The Dragon lived around 620 BC. Since the laws of the Dragon turned out to be unsatisfactory, then... ... Encyclopedia of Mythology
Dragon Cartoon type hand-drawn Genre Fairy tale Director Alexandra Snezhko Blotskaya Scriptwriter Radiy Kushnirov ... Wikipedia
Victorious (Greek Γεώργιος Τροπαιοφόρος, in Russian folklore Egor the Brave, Muslim Jirjis), in Christian and Muslim legends a martyr warrior, with whose name folklore tradition associated the relict pagan ritual of spring... ... Encyclopedia of Mythology
- (Greek, in Russian folklore Egor the Brave, Muslim J. J. J. and R. J.), in Christian and Muslim legends, a warrior martyr, with whose name the folklore tradition associated the relict pagan ritual of spring cattle breeding and partly ... ... Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies
This term has other meanings, see Dragon (meanings). “The Battle of St. George with the Dragon” (Paolo Uccello, c. 1456) ... Wikipedia
- “The Battle of St. George with the Dragon” (Paolo Uccello, c. 1456) Dragon (from the Greek δράκων) is a collective name that unites a number of mythological and fantastic creatures, as well as real-life biological species. The image of a dragon is widely... ... Wikipedia
The request for "St. George" is redirected here; see also other meanings. This term has other meanings, see St. George the Victorious (meanings). St. George the Victorious Γεώργιος ... Wikipedia
DRAGON- a symbol of the destructive forces of evil in the West and creative teachings in the East. The name comes from the Greek word draon serpent. In Christian semiotics, the dragon is presented in the form of a mythical beast with foul breath, a scaly body, claws... ... Symbols, signs, emblems. Encyclopedia
A; m. [Greek drakōn] 1. In Slavic mythology: A fairy-tale monster that devours people and animals, in the form of a winged fire-breathing serpent with lion claws, wings similar to bat wings, a forked tongue and tail ● In art often... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary
Saint George the Victorious is, in my opinion, the first early Christian saint - a soldier. He was born in the 3rd century AD in Palestine, on the territory of modern Israel, in a small town, next to which the country's largest airport named after David Ben-Gurion is currently located, in a Christian family. Since childhood, St. George was distinguished by excellent physical characteristics, entered military service early, had a brilliant career, became the favorite general of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, during the persecution of Christians he spoke out in their defense, was arrested, subjected to severe torture, and then beheaded.
That, in fact, is the entire biography of St. George.
What the persecutor of Christians and murderer of the Roman Emperor Diocletian looked like is known exactly, although his image is hardly familiar to anyone.
Note that Emperor Diocletian left his mark on history not only by persecuting Christians, whom he considered dangerous troublemakers, enemies of the stability of the Roman Empire and its bonds. He is also known for his unprecedented voluntary renunciation of the imperial title and departure to the countryside after 20 years of rule. When, after some time, a delegation of the Roman Senate came to Diocletian to convince him to return to power, the former emperor refused, noting, among other things, that if they had seen what kind of cabbage he grew in his garden, they would not have pestered him with with your stupid proposals.
It is not known exactly what St. George looked like (and whether he existed in reality), but everyone will recognize his image for sure! And all thanks, firstly, to the presence of a spear in his right hand, and, secondly, to the presence next to St. George of a second and integral character - a serpent or dragon. If you see a dragon in a picture or icon, and next to it a knight in shining armor and with a spear in his hand, then 99.99 percent this knight is St. George. St. George is usually depicted on horseback:
on a horse and with a girl:
or less often on foot, but also with or without a girl:
but definitely with a dragon. The image of the dragon itself can also vary from a plump python with teeth
Like a kind of pterodactyl, but also well-fed
St. George is often depicted with a red cross on a white background.
This cross is called: St. George. It has been the national flag of England since the 13th century. In the 17th century, the cross of St. George was combined with the symbol of Scotland - the St. Andrew's cross and the symbol of Ireland - the cross of St. Patrick: the result was the flag of the United Kingdom - the Union Jack.
However, let us return to the images of St. George. The roles of the saint and the dragon are strictly distributed: the first pierces the second with a spear, the second writhes in death agony and tries to bite the first. Yes, I almost forgot, the canon obliges us to depict a horse of a light color and always in apples
The plot of these paintings is drawn from the legend “The Miracle of St. George about the Serpent,” according to which a malicious serpent appeared in a local swamp near the city of Lasia. Every day he crawled ashore and devoured the surrounding population. And the governor could not (or did not want) to do anything about it. Things got to the point that the local fifth column led the population of the town to an unauthorized mass meeting and thereby put such pressure on the governor that, in a patriotic impulse, he offered to give his own daughter to the insatiable snake. The girl was dressed in the most beautiful clothes, decorated with expensive jewelry and taken to the habitat of the snake, which, in anticipation of lunch, had already crawled ashore. At this time, George was passing through those places, riding his war horse to his native land after demobilization. Seeing such a picture, George, using a spear and sword, finely chopped the snake, and took the freed girl to her happy father. On this occasion, the governor and the people loyal to him adopted Christianity, and also built a temple in the city dedicated to St. George. The plot of this legend can also be interpreted allegorically: St. George is the “army of Christ”, bringing the Christian faith to foreign lands; serpent (dragon) - the personification of heresy, or even Diocletian himself; Well, the virgin in captivity of the serpent is the Christian Church.
But this is the classic version of the legend of St. George and the dragon. According to an alternative version, George did not kill the dragon serpent. On the contrary, the knight-saint pacified the serpent solely with the help of the sign of the cross and the word of God. Accordingly, in iconography they began to place emphasis not on the feat of arms of St. George and the defeat of a fossil animal with a spear, but on his pacification by prayer and the salvation of the princess. A new version of the legend about the serpent came in the 11th century from Byzantium, or rather from Georgia (Georgia), which was part of the Byzantine Empire and where the saint was especially revered.
An illustration of this version of the legend can be seen on the surviving frescoes of the Church of St. George, which is in Staraya Ladoga, 130 km from St. Petersburg.
Old Ladoga became old only in 1704, when Peter I founded New Ladoga at the mouth of the Volkhov. It is believed that Ladoga was the first capital of ancient Rus' (but not Kyiv, really, I beg you) and the place of Rurik’s reign from 862 to 865. According to one version, the Church of St. George was built in the 12th century on the site of the former residence of Rurik. But let’s return to the Ladoga fresco, which we have been admiring for almost 15 years, as soon as we bought a dacha in Novaya Ladoga.
St. George on the fresco is depicted without weapons (a banner in his right hand), but in armor and on a horse in traditional apples. However, as we remember, the armor and horse serve solely for the purpose of identifying the saint, as does the image of the serpent. The serpent himself is just a sweetheart. The leash around the neck is especially touching. When I look at the Ladoga image of the serpent, for some reason I always remember my Central Asian shepherd dog Palvan (pet name - Pasha), probably because of his complex, biting character, but “kind inside”. In fact, the snake is not wearing a leash, but a belt of the princess, who leads the animal, dancing like that: she is glad that, firstly, she remained alive and, secondly, she met a military man. Military men, as we know, are popular with girls. With a few exceptions, let's not point fingers.
Let us also remember that in XII the bulk of the Ladoga population was illiterate. We didn’t go to school, but we went to church very often. And the frescoes in the church also served as an effective means of state propaganda, just like TV today. Suffice it to recall the famous 70-meter carpet from the Norman town of Bayeux (we’ll definitely tell you more about it later), which was woven and then hung in the local cathedral for decades with only one purpose: to convince the local population that the Norman Duke William the Conqueror did not annex Crimea to England, but only reunited the original Norman lands and, thereby, restored historical justice.
So what message does the fresco from the Ladoga Church of St. George convey? Good people, not with a sword or a spear, not with “grads” and not with “beeches”, and certainly not with “Iskanders”, but only with kindness, conviction and words, of course with God’s help, can one achieve final Victory in the eternal battle of Good with Evil - in oneself, in the innermost depths of one’s own soul and in the world around us. At least that's what HISTORY says.
St George and the Dragon (c. 1870-89), National Gallery, London
St. George slaying the dragon is a very popular subject in Renaissance painting. In the 19th century, interest in this topic with renewed vigor manifested itself primarily in England, where St. George was considered the embodiment of military valor.
Moreau probably began work on the painting “Saint George and the Dragon” in 1870, but soon forgot about it for a long time and finished it only many years later at the insistence of the customer, who paid 9,000 francs for the painting. The cloak of St. George flutters in the wind like the wings of a bird, and the head of the holy warrior is surrounded by a halo written in the form of a disk. The monumentality of the image is given by the pyramidal composition, which is made up of the central group of figures. Moreau describes a heroic moment of triumph of male power. Meanwhile, the figure of the princess adds a mysterious, and even philosophical, note to the well-known plot. The girl’s prayerful pose echoes the bend of the dragon’s body, which reveals a mysterious connection between these characters. Knowing Moreau’s undisguised aversion to marriage, one can assume that in this case the painting conveys the artist’s ambiguous attitude towards women, in whom he always saw a source of danger hidden behind external beauty.
