Saint George Slaying the Dragon (c. 1510–1515): Art, History and Details

Saint George Slaying the Dragon (c. 1510–1515) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Lucas Cranach (German, 1472–1553).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In 1505, Cranach became court painter to Friedrich the Wise, Elector of Saxony, who encouraged the production of prints because they promoted the artistic and intellectual vitality of his court and the magnificence of its patronage. The Holy Roman emperor Maximilian did the same, making aristocratic sponsorship of printmaking a critical factor in the rising status of the woodcut. Cranach-together with Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg and Hans Burgkmair in Augsburg (both on view nearby)-elevated the Northern woodcut to the highest level of artistic expression in the first decade of the 16th century. Friedrich's coat of arms (crossed swords) and the arms of Saxony appear prominently on most of Cranach's prints, suggesting that the artist worked under a kind of retainer-though the arms may also have operated somewhat like a privilege, an exclusive authorization to publish prints under Friedrich's legal protection.

Object facts

• Title: Saint George Slaying the Dragon
• Date: c. 1510–1515
• Creator attribution: Lucas Cranach (German, 1472–1553)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Dimensions: Sheet: 16.3 x 12.7 cm (6 7/16 x 5 in.)
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1999.47

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Contemporary German Painting Acquired by CMA,” June 9, 1999, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.