Inscription in Slavonic: The Great Martyr George the Victory-bearer Feast Day: April 23rd Saint George was a Roman officer martyred for his faith in the reign of the emperor Diocletian....
Inscription in Slavonic: The Great Martyr George the Victory-bearer
Feast Day: April 23rd
Saint
George was a Roman officer martyred for his faith in the reign of the emperor
Diocletian. He was widely venerated throughout Europe and became the patron
saint of England in the 10th century. In the Middle Ages several legends sprang
up around Saint George. One of them tells how he rescued the princess who had
to be given in sacrifice to the dragon. Saint George arrived on his white
charger and saved her just before she was devoured by the beast. This icon
shows the narrative part of the event with her parents the King and Queen
watching from the city’s battlements. In the upper left corner Christ blesses
the scene. An angel crowns Saint George.
This is a
very good example of the 19th century revival style. The painter
follows the manner of the 16th century closely. This renewal
paralleled the translation of the Greek mystical writings of the Desert Fathers
and the profound spiritual revival of the Hesychast prayer tradition of Mount
Athos.
Some three
hundred kilometres west of Moscow are the towns of Mstera, Kholuy and Palekh.
Famous throughout Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries these
communities were devoted entirely to the production of icons and later, during
the Soviet period, they painted lacquer boxes illustrating fairy tales. Many of the workshops were run by Old
Believers, a schismatic sect within the Orthodox Church who resisted the
westernisation of their art.