Saint George and the Dragon

Description

Bernat Martorell was the greatest painter of the first half of the fifteenth century in Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Depicted here is the most frequently represented episode from the popular legend of Saint George, in which the model Christian knight saves a town and rescues a beautiful princess. Conceived in the elegant, decorative International Gothic style, the painting was originally the center of an altarpiece dedicated to Saint George that was apparently made for the chapel of the palace of the Catalan government in Barcelona. This central scene was surrounded by four smaller narrative panels, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and was probably surmounted by a lost image of Christ on the Cross. Here Saint George, on his white steed, triumphs over the evil dragon. A wealth of precisely observed details intensifies the drama. Dressed in an ermine-lined robe, the princess wears a sumptuous gilt crown atop her wavy red-gold hair. Her parents and their subjects watch the spectacle from the distant town walls. George’s halo and armor and the scaly body of the dragon are richly modeled with raised stucco decoration. Martorell also treated the ground, littered with bones and crawling with lizards, in a lively manner, giving it a gritty texture.

Provenance

Probably commissioned for the chapel of Saint George, Palau de la Generalitat, Barcelona [Sobré in Wolff 2008]; Don Francesc de Sales de Rocabruna i Jordà, Baron of Albi, by 1867, died 1874 [lent by him to Barcelona 1867, along with the four lateral panels now in the Louvre, Paris, and a painting of the Virgin, probably the painting now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art]; when his estate was divided between his sister Maria Josepa de Rocabruna i Jordà (d. 1890) and his widow Josepa de Rocabruna i Pascual (died 1884), Saint George and the Dragon is likely to have passed to his widow, since two of her three executors correspond to the executors mentioned in the confused account of the painting’s sale in Sanpere y Miquel 1906, vol. 1, p. 195, vol. 2, p. 275 [see Macías and Cornudella 2011-2012, pp. 21-22 for the family relationships and likely transmission]. Don José Ferrer-Vidal i Soler, Barcelona, by 1906, until 1917 [Sanpere y Miquel 1906, vol. 1, p. 194, see also Macías and Cornudella 2012, p. 22 and Sánchez Sauleda 2014, p. 429]; sold by him to Charles Deering, Marycel, Sitges, near Barcelona, and Chicago, in 1917 [see Sánchez Sauleda 2014]; the painting was placed on loan at the Art Institute in 1921; loan agreement, Nov. 18, 1921, Art Institute Archives]; given to his daughters, Marion Deering McCormick and Barbara Deering Danielson, 1924 [Art Institute Archives]; given by them to the Art Institute, 1933.

Saint George and the Dragon

Bernat Martorell

1434–35

Accession Number

15468

Medium

Tempera on panel

Dimensions

155.6 × 98.1 cm (61 1/4 × 38 5/8 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Richard E. Danielson and Mrs. Chauncey McCormick

Background & Context

Background Story

Bernat Martorells Saint George and the Dragon, painted around 1434-35, is the masterwork of 15th-century Catalan painting and one of the most spectacular narrative panels of the International Gothic style. The painting depicts the legendary combat in which Saint George, mounted on a white horse, slays the dragon to save the princess who stands watching in the background, her hands clasped in prayer. Martorell divides the composition into distinct spatial zones: the flat landscape with its meticulously rendered botanical details occupies the foreground, while the walled city ofSilene rises behind, its architecture rendered with the precision of an architectural model. The diagonal line of the lances broken shaft creates a dramatic thrust from upper left to lower right that unifies the composition and intensifies the sense of violent action. The painting belonged to an altarpiece dedicated to Saint George, the patron saint of Catalonia, and its nationalistic significance would have been understood by its original audience. The gold-leaf背景 (visible in the halos and decorative elements) and the crisp linear style connect the work to the broader International Gothic tradition, while the specific quality of light and landscape detail mark it as distinctly Catalan.

Cultural Impact

Martorells Saint George and the Dragon is a cornerstone of Catalan national art and a defining work of the International Gothic style in Spain. Its influence extended throughout the Mediterranean, and its depiction of Saint George became the canonical image of the Catalan patron saint, shaping religious and national identity in Catalonia for centuries.

Why It Matters

The masterwork of 15th-century Catalan painting, depicting Saint Georges combat with the dragon with International Gothic elegance and Catalan specificity, combining botanical precision, narrative drama, and devotional function in a landmark of Spanish art.

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