1059 - Schmitz-Hohe, Saint George Fighting the Dragon, Bronze Relief as a Wall Plaque, 1963

Schmitz-Hohe, Saint George Fighting the Dragon, Bronze Relief as a Wall Plaque, 1963 Bronze relief, brown patinated. Upright rectangular plate with a narrow frame bar running round it, incised at lower right with the signature and the date 1963, at the top centre a small drilled hole for hanging. Strongly stylised, emphatically linear depiction of Saint George on horseback moving to the left, thrusting the long lance into the jaws of the beast lying beneath the horse; the horse rears, and rider, lance and the dragon's body are interlocked into a dense structure of lines. The surface left pitted, the pictorial ground finely granulated. Good condition commensurate with age, the reverse with local traces of corrosion, 30x21 cm (HxW). Saint George is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and the patron of soldiers, knights and scouts. The narrative of the fight with the dragon arose only in the 12th century and spread through the Legenda aurea; in it the dragon stands for evil as such, and the rider's victory for spiritual triumph. His attributes are the horse, the lance and the cross of Saint George. Wall plaques of this kind belong to the broad field of sacred small sculpture of the post-war period, made for church interiors as well as for private devotion. An appealing piece for collectors of Christian art and modern bronzes.