Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011422St. George and the Dragon
About the Artwork
According to a legend based on Greek myth, as Saint George passed through Libya, he rescued a king’s daughter who had been left as a sacrifice to placate a vicious dragon. In gratitude for being delivered from the monster’s tyranny, the king’s subjects converted to Christianity. Here George wears armor in the ancient style based on Roman sculpture. Classical armor in Renaissance art was reserved for elite male subjects as a sign of their virtue. As a military saint, George’s attire conveys his antiquity as an early Christian hero (died about AD 303), conferring on him a sense of Roman authority and gravity.
Inscriptions
VERSO OF SECONDARY SUPPORT, upper center, in brown ink: C. Salviati ; upper left, in graphite: Box6 - 5. ; center, in graphite: 10
Provenance
Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1697-1759), Holkam Hall, Norfolk, England; by descent within the Coke family; [their sale, Christie's, London, 2 July 1991, p. 25, lot 6]; [Artemis Fine Arts, Ltd., London (David Carritt, Ltd., London)]
Exhibition history
Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Francesco Salviati (Italian, 1510–1563)
- Date
- c. 1530s
- Medium
- black chalk with red chalk, stumped
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 30.3 x 43.2 cm (11 15/16 x 17 in.); Secondary Support: 43.3 x 55.1 cm (17 1/16 x 21 11/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1992.60
More by Francesco Salviati in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011422
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