Tuesday, June 18, 2013

St. George and the Dragon in Stockholm

Sculpture in Stocklholm's thirteenth-century cathedral, attributed to Bernt Notke (1489). The statue was commissioned to commemorate the Battle of Brunkeberg (1471). It is also serves as a reliquary, containing relics of Saint George, which is a good trick since even the pope now admits that St. George never existed.



There is a steel copy of the statue in the square outside the church, which is easier to take pictures of than the original in the dim interior. Here is the dragon's head on the copy. This might get my vote for the best dragon in any work of medieval or Renaissance art, certainly the best one to appear in any rendering of St. George.


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