Saint George (1506): Artwork and History

Saint George (1506) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Benedetto Montagna Italian, c. 1480-1556/58.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Here Saint George is depicted after killing a dragon, the action for which he is best known; the princess he has rescued from the dragon kneels to the left, while a young squire stands next to his master’s horse. The figures occupy an open-air architectural space with a gateway and pinnacled walls. This is the second state of Benedetto Montagna’s engraving; the saint is shown in three-quarter profile, and the princess looks directly at the saint. Benedetto applied diagonal hatching and loose lines, suggesting an interest in the work of Girolamo Mocetto, while the use of heavy highlighting reflects an awareness of Albrecht Dürer’s technique.

Object facts

• Title: Saint George
• Date: 1506
• Artist attribution: Benedetto Montagna Italian, c. 1480-1556/58
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Engraving in black on tan laid paper
• Dimensions: 22 × 17.5 cm (8 11/16 × 6 15/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.1033

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.