The Legend of Saint George and the Dragon: the king relents to the sacrifice of his daughter, with figures fleeing from the dragon in the distance

In this rare depiction of an episode from the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, the artist shows the moment when the king of Silene, Libya, must relent to the sacrifice of his daughter so as to appease the dragon terrorising the town. The unusual absence of Saint George from the scene suggests that this canvas may have been one of many painted for a larger narrative series. The fame of Saint George was greatly increased throughout Europe by the publication of Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) in 1265, and became a popular subject in the visual arts in the late fifteenth century following the founding of the Order of Saint George by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III in 1464, and the secular confraternity of Saint George, founded in 1494 under his son and successor Maximilian I. The artist of the present picture reflects the Mannerist influences of Antwerp artists like Frans Floris (1517-1570) and Ambrosius Francken the Elder (c. 1544-1618), and the Italianate style of Jan van der Straet (1523-1605).