Raphael, Saint George Struggling with the Dragon, 1505 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Raphael_-_Saint_George_Fighting_the_Dragon.jpg
The Italin painter Raphael "Saint George Struggling with the Dragon" is a painting that describes and appends to the hagiography(study of a saint) of Saint George. The paiting is based upon amere legend of a story during medievial times and brought back to life during the Renassiance. The story is reallu quite simple. A dragon is sent to terrioze a village, so the villagers give him food in return to stop causing chaos upon them. Though the dragon continues unless food isn't given to him. Pretty soon the villagers then give the dragons their childrenone food becomes scares and this was through the form of a lottery. One day the emperor daughter is chossen in a lottery. the king pleads to the people that offer one of their own in return for riches. They just kinly reject his offer. The daughter was then sent to a bridge to be fed to the dragon, but on the way their Saint George occurs. He then promised the slay the dragon and rid of this chaos only if the people get baptized in the name of the lord. Once they did this he forcefully slays the dragon.
My opinion on the legend is that the people may have benn wicked in heart. I mean the adults gave up their children in behalf of their lives and so then the dragon respresenting the Devil was sent upon them. The people were then at the mercy of his hand, even the king himself. The Saint, basically a missonary, feels sorry for them and the princess and basically and slyly gets people to join his religion through the sense of reliving their sorrow. So now the great dragon is slayed and the whole town becomes Christian. The author is basically saying that in order to get away from chaos bestiwed upon the wicked you must condsent to become a Christian and person of God. The time of when this was written is very easy to interpret, because Christianity played a major role in Europe at the time, especially in the sense of the Crusades.
1) Why do Raphael create his own painting of this legend?
2) Is the Dragon really represetation of a wicked being or spirit?
3) Does this painting really spread and benefits of becoming a Christian?
Great choice Tyler, thats a very powerful art piece. To answer your question I think the dragon is a wicked sprit of some sort. I also think Saint Geroge is an angel sent to protect the people of thier village. I find it wierd that the people sacrificed thier kids.
ReplyDeletei believe the dragon represents all things non christian and how Christians must purge the world of non christian influences
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