Saint George Killing the Dragon

religious

Martorell worked as a panel painter and illuminator in the service of the city of Barcelona, but he was often given the task of preparing designs for stained glass windows and for sculptures as well. This composition was originally the centre panel of an altarpiece; the two volets, with panels representing the saint's martyrdom, are preserved in the Louvre in Paris. In the arid, rocky surroundings of the foreground St George is on the point of killing the formidable dragon with a stab of his lance.

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About the Artist

Bernat Martorell

1400 – 1452

Catalan painter and miniaturist. He worked in Barcelona and was the outstanding painter in Catalonia in the second quarter of the 15th century, the successor to Borrassá, who probably taught him. Only one surviving work is securely documented - the Altarpiece of St Peter of Pubol (Gerona Museum, 1437) - but on stylistic grounds a group of paintings formerly given to 'the Master of St George' has been attributed to him. The group includes (and formerly took its identity from) an altarpiece of St George ; the central panel is in the Art Institute of Chicago and the four wings are in the Louvre. Martorell's work, influenced by Franco-Flemish painting and illumination, was essentially International Gothic in style, but reveals a highly distinctive personality, particularly in its vigorous sense of drama and delicate handling of light. Among the painters of the next generation Huguet was most obviously indebted to him.

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