Paolo Uccello - Saint George and the Dragon

Title: Saint George and the Dragon
Artist: Paolo Uccello (1397-1475)
Date: c. 1470
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 56 × 74 cm

“Saint George and the Dragon” is one of the first known painting of oil on canvas. The painting is based on the legend of Saint George- a dragon was terrorizing a village, requesting villagers sacrifice him first animals, then humans. Fate had chosen that the princess of the village would be the next villager to be sacrificed. George, a knight riding in the area, saved the princess, tamed the dragon, and used the dragon to coerce the villagers in converting to Christianity. The painting depicts the scene when Georges spears the beast.

As in “The Battle of Romano”, the horse is powerful and is as much the warrior as George is. The rectitude of the spear and that of the dragon’s wings mark an intense dynamism and is in sharp contrast with the soft curves of the princess. The storm gathering on the right of George is lined up with his spear showing divine intervention. Does the bizarre pattern of the grass on the ground have a meaning?