St. George and the Dragon
One of the Christian myths that many artists have depicted is St. George and the dragon. St. George was an early martyr, probably a Roman soldier executed during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Diocletian in 303 AD in what is now Israel. The story of his martyrdom was embellished (though not with the dragon story – that came later), and shrines to him sprang up all over the Eastern Roman Empire.
So, how did St. George become associated with England? After a shipwreck in 740, a casket supposedly containing the jawbone of St. George (yeah, right) washed ashore in Normandy, France. The Normans built a church to house the relic and became devoted to the saint. The Norman Conquest brought this devotion to England. Meanwhile, the legend of St. George had been further embellished to include the bit about him slaying a dragon to save a princess.
In 1348 King Edward III established the Order of the Garter and made St. George the patron saint of England. The cross of St. George (a red cross a white background, at top left) became the flag of England. This later became part of the British flag, as shown above.
That's all fine, but to the point of this blog, how did St. George come to be represented naked? St. George had usually been shown as a knight in armor on horseback, despite the fact that the real St. George lived long before the era of knights. But then, the real St. George never killed a dragon to rescue a princess, either. Details, details ...
The nude tradition seems to have started with the British gold sovereign (£1) coin, above, designed by Italian artist Benedetto Pistrucci in 1817. Pistrucci depicted St. George nude, following the tradition of Greek and Roman classical statues of nude heroes.
The words around the edge say "Honi soit qui mal y pense," the motto of the Order of the Garter. In old Norman French, it means "whoever thinks evil of it should be ashamed." It originally referred to the garter of the Order of the Garter, and a looser translation of it might be "get your mind out of the gutter."
In combination with the figure of a naked man, I think it also makes the perfect motto for this blog, the Unashamed Male. Being naked isn't evil or immoral. People who think it is should be ashamed.
The naked representation caught on. Above is a medal of St. George and the dragon by William Wyon, made for Prince Albert in 1845.
Study for St. George Slaying the Dragon by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1865-1866.
St. George and the Dragon, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Made in Birmingham, England, by Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1877.
Another St. George and the Dragon by Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1889. This one is at the State Library in Melbourne, Australia.
Naked St. George even made it into women's jewelry. This is a Victorian brooch, c. 1880.
A painting of Sen Jorge (St. George) by Giorgio de Chirico, 1920. The dragon seems to be missing in action.
St. George and the Dragon by Salvador Dali, 1942.
I previously showed this sculpture of St. George and the Dragon in a post on contemporary British sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley.
In 2008, St. George's Cathedral in Perth, Australia held a competition for a public artwork on the theme St. George and the Dragon. This was the entry by British sculptor Rodney Munday, with a life-size nude St. George fighting a huge dragon. I like this piece because, unlike all the others we've seen, this dragon is big enough to be a real threat. Unfortunately, Munday didn't win. The winning art was a somewhat abstract sculpture of St. George's lance and a fluttering pennant. That's all. No St. George, no dragon. Oh, well, sic transit gloria Munday (sorry, I couldn't resist a multilingual pun).
3 comments:
I love this history lesson!
The dragon was probably supposed to be the Devil after the snake phase.
A legend I was told by the most brilliant historian I have "known" states "The Royal Order of the Garter" was initiated to cover up a tryst that occurred during a royal fete. Edward III had a quickie with a fellow royal while "attending the ball". When they donned their clothing they had exchanged a garter. This resulted in a murmuring among the attendees. Edward was made aware of the suspicious rumor spreading "like father, like son". The king made a show stating "Honi soit qui mal y pense". Thus the Royal Order of the Garter came about as a cover-up for a same-sex trist. I suspect the naked ST. George in the depiction, has more to do with a hint at the actual reason for the award.
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