Albrecht Dürer, “St. George and the Dragon.” Woodcut print (Nuremberg, 1504), 8 1/4 x 5 9/16 in. (21 x 14.1 cm). Web (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
“St. George and the Dragon”
A print from a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), one of the most famous artists of his time. Dürer was a self-taught artist who rose to stardom through his expert woodcuts that were cutting-edge, quite literally, in style and technique. He is famous for his esoteric cuts depicting witches or other forms of the dark arts.
This print is more straightforward, showing Saint George slaying the dragon in Africa. Saint George was a Roman soldier who heard of a dragon terrorizing a kingdom in Africa that was extorting everything the kingdom had and even demanding human sacrifices. The king was too afraid to fight the dragon and could not find anyone else willing to do so. However, Saint George heroically steps in and—as shown in the print—takes down the dragon and ends the senseless sacrifices.
Note the small figure hiding in the background; you can tell by the crown that Dürer has also depicted the cowardly king in this image! Dürer therefore included two monsters in this image: the fearsome man-eating dragon, and the spineless despot who enabled it.
Sean Peek
Albrecht Dürer, “Knight, Death and the Devil” (1513). Engraving. 24.8 x 10.1 cm (9 3/4 x 4 in). Web (Art Institute Chicago).
“Knight, Death and the Devil”
This 1513 print by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) shows a knight riding through the woods, accompanied by Death, also on horseback, and followed by a devil spirit. The devil in question is very different from the images of the Devil Lucifer, still grotesque but less human and more bestial. But—importantly—it is not trying to refer to those images! This woodcut is not meant to reflect a biblical tale or scene.
In the folk tradition, the devil was often syncretized with older stories of mischievous or evil spirits from pre-Christian tradition; the pagan spirits, their iconography, and tradition remained but were re-imagined as belonging to the Christian Hell. So while Dürer has drawn us a Devil, it is a Devil with its origins in pre-Christian Europe, not the biblical narrative.
Lorraine Steigner