Details

Object type

panel

Title

St George and the Dragon

Place Associated

England (place of manufacture)

Date

1480 - 1500

Materials

alabaster, polychrome, gilt (traces), lead

Dimensions

overall: 400 mm x 268 mm 6379 g

Description

This panel shows St George, a commonly venerated saint in late medieval England, celebrated on St Georges Day and in Corpus Christi processions. He is shown here clad in armour on horseback. He wears a visored sallet with details of the lining-band rivets and the sharp pointed apex of the helmet-skull, flared cut-away gauntlets and a mail collar, rather than a bevor as might be expected. The shoulder defence, the pauldron, is depicted with the cutaway section allowing a lance to be held. The saint’s broken lance lies by the dragon, which the horse tramps under its feet. The maker has paid attention to the depiction of the upper thigh plates, the tassets, which are shown with detailed straps and buckles. This armour, especially the sabatons he wears on his feet, suggest a date of about 1490/1500.

In the upper left corner is the princess with a dog on a lead and in the upper right corner, above projecting battlements the scene is observed by the princess’s parents. The background is completed by turrets and another building above battlements. There is an indecipherable 16th century incised inscription on St. George’s breast plate, and only a few traces of gilding and polychromy remain. To the rear, incised marks.

The panel is very likely to come from an altarpiece dedicated to scenes from the life of St. George. Two well-known complete alabaster retables dedicated to this saint survive in Denmark and at La Celle, Eure, France. The latter combines some of the life of St George with that of the Virgin, and the Burrell panel is similar to a panel there depicting the same scene.

Exhibitions:Glasgow, McLellan Galleries, The Burrell Collection Exhibition, 1949, no. 974; York, English Medieval Alabaster Carvings, 1954, no. 89; Glasgow, Knights and Castles, the Burrell Collection, 15.3.2002-5.1.2003

Bibliography:P. Nelson, Some Additional Specimens of English Alabaster Carvings, Archeological Journal, 1927, pp. 116-117, p. ii, 2 (possibly); F. Cheetham, Export Art of the Middle Ages. English Alabasters, Country Life, 1970, p. 37, ill. 5; F. Cheetham, Alabaster Images of Medieval England, 2003, Saints, no. 41; R. Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medieval England, 2004, pp. 118-9 (illustration);

T. Capwell, The real fighting stuff: Arms and armour at Glasgow Museums, 2007, p. 20

Provenance: Purchased from the Spanish Gallery, London, 1 April 1925. Formerly in the possession of Messrs. Harding, St James's, London.

Credit Line/Donor

Gifted by Sir William and Lady Burrell to the City of Glasgow, 1944

Collection

Burrell Collection: Alabasters

ID Number

1.45

Location

Burrell Collection