Saint George and the Dragon (Raphael)

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St. George and the Dragon
Raphael, 1504-1506
Oil on wood
28,5 × 21,5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

St. George and the Dragon is a small cabinet painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael, 1504-1506.

The St. Michael and St. George and the Dragon in the Louvre, and this St. George of the National Gallery of Washington, are bound together both by their subject - an armed youth fighting a dragon - and by stylistic elements. All three are assigned to the Florentine period of Raphael and echo those stimuli which the Urbinate received from the great masters who worked in Florence or whose paintings were visible there. The influence of Leonardo - whose fighting warriors from the Battle of Anghiari (1505) in the Palazzo della Signoria provided an extraordinary example of martial art (the painting deteriorated very rapidly because of shortcomings in Leonardo's experimental technique and so is no longer visible) - predominates in these works. But references to Flemish painting - particularly that of Hieronymus Bosch (the glaring light and humanoid monsters which populate the St. Michael are characteristic of Bosch) - suggest the environment of Urbino, where Northern influences were still quite vivid.

These small panels are indicative of a moment in which the painter gathers the stylistic fruits of what he has assimilated so far and, at the same time, poses pictorial problems which will be developed in the future.

The painting used to be a highlight of the Pierre Crozat collection which was acquired through Diderot's mediation by Catherine II of Russia in 1772. For a century and a half, the panel hang in the Imperial Hermitage Museum. It was one of the most popular paintings in the entire collection of the Tsars. In March 1931 the Bolsheviks sold the painting to Andrew Mellon, who ceded it to the Washington gallery.

[edit] See also

Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings

v • d • e Raphael

Early Works	The Kinnaird Resurrection • Baronci altarpiece • Holy Family with Madonna of the Veil • St. Sebastian • Oddi Altar • Solly Madonna • Mond Crucifixion • Three Graces • St. Michael • Portrait of a Man • Connestabile Madonna • Madonna and Child • The Marriage of the Virgin • Vision of a Knight • St. George • Colonna Altarpiece • Portrait of Perugino

Florentine period	Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga • Self-portrait • Madonna of the Grand Duke • Ansidei Madonna • Young Man with an Apple • Christ Blessing • Madonna Terranova • Madonna of the Goldfinch • Madonna of the Meadow • Esterhazy Madonna • St. George and the Dragon • La Donna Gravida • Portrait of Agnolo Doni • Portrait of Maddalena Doni • Madonna of the Pinks • Young Woman with Unicorn • Madonna with Beardless St. Joseph • Saint Catherine of Alexandria • Canigiani Holy Family • La belle jardinière • Deposition of Christ • The Three Theological Virtues • Portrait of a Young Woman • Tempi Madonna • Madonna Colonna • Madonna de Bogota

Roman period	Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese • La disputa • The School of Athens • Madonna of Loreto • Aldobrandini Madonna • Madonna with the Blue Diadem • Alba Madonna • The Parnassus • The Cardinal Virtues • The Prophet Isaiah • The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple • Portrait of Pope Julius II • Madonna of Foligno • Triumph of Galatea • Sistine Madonna • Madonna della seggiola • Madonna dell'Impannata • Madonna della tenda • The Fire in the Borgo • The Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila • Deliverance of Saint Peter • Portrait of Bindo Altoviti • The Sibyls • The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia • Portrait of Balthasar Castiglione • La Donna Velata • Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami • Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila in Borgo • Portrait of Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano • Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena • Double Portrait • Church of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici • Creation of the World • Transfiguration • Portrait of Pope Leo X with two Cardinals • Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary • The Holy Family of Francis I • Ezechiel's Vision • St. Michael Vanquishing Satan • Madonna of the Rose • Self-portrait with a Friend • La fornarina • Visitation