Dr. Samantha Riches talks to TMO about the cult of St. George and the Dragon, and why there’s a significant collection of art works where the legendary dragon is depicted, very clearly, as female.
It is fitting to start this account with this image, as in many ways, it shows the start of the Christmas story. It was painted by Fra Angelico (c.1390-1455) a Dominican friar, probably for the Dominican house of San Domenico in Fiesole, near Florence. It was bought in 1612 for the Duke of Lerma’s chapel […]
Dr. Samantha Riches talks to TMO about the cult of St. George and the Dragon, and why there’s a significant collection of art works where the legendary dragon is depicted, very clearly, as female.
Harry Clarke was recognised for his artistic genius and achieved great success during his own lifetime, yet he often gets pigeonholed into various modes of artistic expression. Clarke however, was not merely a symbolist, a revivalist, an illustrator, or a stained glass artist; he was all of these but also much more complex and interesting […]
In the year 2000, during restoration work, a rare and important mural was uncovered at the communal fountain of the Tuscan town of Massa Marittima. It was not necessarily a welcome surprise, at least at first, as this painting from the Middle Ages depicted a tree covered with phalluses. “At first when the painting was […]