Alpine painter, 17th century

Oil on canvas

142 x 96 cm.

framed 158 x 111 cm.

The large painting evocatively illustrates the triumph against the dragon of St. George, a noble knight of the Christian faith, whose miraculous adventure, imbued with symbolic meanings in the struggle between Good and Evil, has always been a favourite theme in art: in the Renaissance period it made it possible to stage ideals and values of both chivalry and religion.

An analysis of the stylistic features allow us to attribute the work to a painter marked by Alpine culture at the height of the 17th century, although the pictorial stylistic features are more archaic and refer to northern Italian painting of the 16th century.

"He arrived one day in the kingdom of Silene, ravaged by the presence of a terrible dragon, whose destructive power could only be contained by human sacrifice. It was the 'soldier of Christ' who killed the dangerous beast and saved the sovereign's daughter from the monster's jaws, and as a reward he wanted neither honours nor money, but for all the people to convert to Christianity by receiving baptism".

In the painting, Saint George, saint and knight at the same time, is caught in the moment of his triumph over the Dragon, as he spears him.