The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 5, 2023

St. George and the Dragon

c. 1530s

Francesco Salviati

(Italian, 1510–1563)

Italy, 16th century

Black chalk with red chalk, stumped

Support: Cream(3) laid paper, laid down on cream(3) laid paper

Sheet: 30.3 x 43.2 cm (11 15/16 x 17 in.); Secondary Support: 43.3 x 55.1 cm (17 1/16 x 21 11/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1992.60

Location

not on view

Description

According to a legend based on Greek myth, as Saint George passed through Libya, he rescued a king’s daughter who had been left as a sacrifice to placate a vicious dragon. In gratitude for being delivered from the monster’s tyranny, the king’s subjects converted to Christianity. Here George wears armor in the ancient style based on Roman sculpture. Classical armor in Renaissance art was reserved for elite male subjects as a sign of their virtue. As a military saint, George’s attire conveys his antiquity as an early Christian hero (died about AD 303), conferring on him a sense of Roman authority and gravity.

Inscriptions

Inscription

VERSO OF SECONDARY SUPPORT, upper center, in brown ink: C. Salviati ; upper left, in graphite: Box6 - 5. ; center, in graphite: 10

Provenance
Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1697-1759), Holkam Hall, Norfolk, England; by descent within the Coke family; [their sale, Christie's, London, 2 July 1991, p. 25, lot 6]; [Artemis Fine Arts, Ltd., London (David Carritt, Ltd., London)]
Citations
"1991 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 6 (1992): 155-231. Mentioned: p. 180 www.jstor.org
Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (1993): 38-79. Reproduced: p. 54; Mentioned: p. 74 www.jstor.org
"1993 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (1994): 143-218. Mentioned: p. 155 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

CMA, "Selected Acquisitions" (Feb. 9-Apr. 11, 1993), cma Bulletin 80 (1993), p. 74 no. 284, illus. p. 54.

Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 117): February 7, 2013 - June 3, 2013.

Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.60