Saint George and the Dragon

Artist Workshop of Giovanni Gaggini (Italian, late 15th - early 16th century)

Datelate 15th century

MediumMarble with traces of gilding and polychromy

DimensionsOverall: 28 × 78 × 11 inches (71.12 × 198.12 × 27.94 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Laura Nelson Kirkwood Residuary Trust

Object number41-29/11

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

[None.]

Gallery Label

The Gaggini were a family of sculptors who ranged widely from Liguria, in the north, to Naples and Sicily in the south. Giovanni worked mainly in Genoa, capital of Liguria; its patron saint is George, therefore the survival in that city of countless representations of the saint slaying the dragon and rescuing the hapless daughter of the King of Lydia. The Museum's relief was surely an overdoor given its scale, format and the disposition of all the principal compositional elements in the upper half of the horizontal field (making them visible from the ground). From a technical point of view the sculpture is notable for the depth of its excavation and undercutting, creating a lively pattern of light and shadow which enhances the legibility of the composition.

Provenance

Rodolphe Kann (1845-1905), Paris, by 1905;

By inheritance to the Kann heirs, Paris, 1905-August 6, 1907;

Purchased from the Kann heirs by Duveen Brothers, Paris, stock book no. 1, Rodolphe Kann Collection, no. K43, August 6, 1907-September 25, 1912 [1];

Purchased from Duveen by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), New York and San Simeon, CA, September 25, 1912-1940 [2];

Purchased from Hearst by Brummer Gallery, New York, 1940-1941;

Purchased from Brummer Gallery, through the generosity of the Laura Nelson Kirkwood Residuary Trust, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1941.

NOTES:

[1] Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Duveen Brothers Records, Paris Ledger no. 1, Kann Collection.

[2] William Randolph Hearst Archive, Long Island University Post (S/B lot 50, art. 173, Album 43, p. 6). The Hearst archive records Hearst’s purchase date as November 23, 1912.

Published References

Catalogue de la collection Rodolphe Kann Objets d’Art (Paris: M. Jules Mannheim, 1907), 35, 43, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 53, (repro.), as Saint George and the Dragon.

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