French or Netherlandish, Early 16th century

John and Johanna Bass Collection, New York, until 1963;

Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, 1963.

Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Portrait of a Young Man | Laurent Grasso, 29 October 2011 - 12 February 2012;

Miami, Bass Museum of Art, An Invitation to LOOK, 11 April - 3 July 2011;

Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Taplin 2012, 3 March - 14 October 2012;

Art History Lab, 31 May 2015.

The most well-known version of the legend of Saint George and the Dragon comes from Jacobus da Varagine’s Legenda aurea from 1260, which details the hagiographies of 153 saints. In this telling, the dragon was poisoning a village with his odious breath, and, in an attempt to subdue him, the villagers first offered the beast a meal of two sheep daily, then a man and one sheep, and later offered their children. Eventually, a princess was called upon to be sacrificed -- she was brought to the edge of the lake where the dragon resided, but before she was abandoned, Saint George arrived, made the sign of the cross and charged at the dragon, wounding it. Instead of killing the beast, he used the princess's girdle to restrain it and lead it back to the village. Saint George declared he would slay the dragon if the inhabitants converted to Christianity. In response to this call, fifteen thousand men including the king, were baptized and Saint George beheaded the dragon, remaining true to his word.

The present sculpture depicts the moment when Saint George lanced the dragon, wounding the creature. With the dissemination of da Varagine’s text in the late Middle Ages, the imagery of Saint George and the dragon became an increasingly popular subject in art.