St. George and the Dragon

Description

Saint George, an early Christian warrior saint and one of the patron saints of Venice, is shown having just killed the dragon. His triumphant pose, with one foot on the beast's head, symbolizes the victory of Christianity over paganism. Adapting the tonal qualities of Venetian painting to the graphic medium, Palma complements the broken pen-drawn contours with washes of differing strengths to give a sense of three-dimensionality and to create the effect of flickering light. This is a completely finished drawing, probably made for its own sake rather than in relation to a particular painting.
Palma was the most prolific draftsman of 16th-century Venice. He actively promoted the teaching of drawing to young artists, as demonstrated by his involvement in the production of Fialetti's drawing book, shown in this exhibition. This drawing of Saint George would have been highly prized by a Venetian collector as an example of Palma's draftsmanship.
Exhibition label text for "Venice, Traditions Transformed," September 21, 1996 - January 12, 1997 by Annette Dixon and Monika Schmitter.