St. George at Prague Castle and Perseus: an Impossible Encounter?

STUDIA HERCYNIA XIX/1–2, S. 189–201 St. george at Prague Castle and Perseus: an impossible Encounter? Jan Bažant aBStraCt St. George and Perseus crossed their paths for the first time in the 11th century when the myth of Greek hero inspired the legend of aChristian saint. In the 14th century, the pictorial types of St. George, Perseus and Bellerophon fighting the dragon started converging. The famous bronze statue of St. George at the Prague Castle, which was created in 1373, represents an advanced stage of this process. kEywordS Perseus; Bellerophon; St. George; iconography; Prague Castle; classical tradition. St. George, the paradoxical combination of warrior and saint, instantly sprung to my mind when Iwas thinking how to honour Jan Bouzek by apaper. The most ambitious medieval depiction of St. George fighting the dragon is the bronze group statue at the Prague Castle (Fig. 1).1 We know that it was cast in bronze by Martin and George of Cluj in 1373 (Balbín 1677, III, 379). Nevertheless, we do not know for whom, by whom and where it was designed. In 1373, Cluj was in the Hungarian Kingdom, but the group statue has stood in the courtyard of the residence of the Bohemian kings at least since 1541. In 1562, atournament was organized for the coronation of Maximilian II as the King of Bohemia. ‘Many have looked,’ reports Jiří Trnický from Trnice, ‘where one could see. They climbed up to the place where the casted statue of St. George, amasterpiece gloriously beautiful, was standing, perhaps more than ahundred years without moving’(Trnický zTrnic 1798, 117–118). This reference suggests that at least from the 15th century, the group statue stood at the given location. The literature on this unique work of art is enormous, but all attempts to define its prove‑ nience and original function failed to receive the universal recognition so far (Benešovská 2007). In this situation, it is perhaps methodologically sounder to abandon, for the time being, the analysis of its artistic form. In this paper, Ishall try to look at the Prague St. George statue from adifferent point of view. Ishall not ask why it looks as it looks, but whether it could look differently. We know that depictions of Perseus influenced the iconography of St. George, it is, therefore, legitimate to compare this group statue with the pictorial type of this ancient Greek hero. Did it also influence the iconography of the group statue at the Prague castle? If yes, to what degree? To put it simply: when we compare this St. George fighting the dragon with other 14th century renderings of this theme, does it look more or less like Perseus? 1 All drawings in this paper were done by Nina Bažantová. 190 STUDIA HERCYNIA XIX/1–2 The stories of Perseus and St. George are strikingly similar; both fought the dragon to release the princess. Until recently, it was therefore generally considered that the medieval St. George was achristianized pagan hero Perseus. The emergence of the saint’simage type, however, had nothing to do with Perseus, because it roots in aseparate pictorial and textual tradition (Ogden 2008, 136; Kilinski II 2013, 193–200). Those who started worshiping the saint were no more familiar with depictions of Perseus liberating Andromeda because the series ends in the 4th century AD (Roccos 1994). The series of depictions of St. George started two centuries later along with the beginning of the saint’sveneration (Braunfels 1974). A6th century AD gem in the British Museum represents asaint on horseback attacking adragon with aspear. The rider has ahalo around his head, and his spear has across at its upper end. It was apro‑ tective amulet because on its reverse there is aGreek inscription: ‘this God is the victor over evil’ (Fig. 2). It was produced in the eastern Mediterranean, and the saint is depicted exactly as St. George was later portrayed. However, it could be any of saints ‑warriors fighting against the dragon, who were very popular in the Byzantine Empire (Walter 2003). The pictorial type of Christian hero on horseback aiming with his lance at the head of the dragon was adapted from depictions of Bellerophon. In ancient Greek art, Bellerophon’sstruggle with Chimaera started being represented simultaneously with Perseus’ fight with Medusa, in the 7th century BC (Lochin 1994). The type was repeated with slight variations until the end of antiquity, and it was later used also to represent St. George. The only difference was that the saint’shorse was not winged, and the dragon replaced Chimaera. Fig. 1: St. George fighting the dragon. Bronze group sculpture, 1373. The original is in the Collections of Prague Castle. 191JAN BAŽANT On aprocessional cross from the 6th–7th century AD there is one of the oldest depictions of St. George. He is represented in military uniform with ashield; ahalo characterises him as asaint. His name is mentioned twice on the vertical arm of the cross (Fig. 3). Above, there is aGreek inscription, ‘St. George.’ Below, there is an inscription accompanied by arequest, ‘St. George, help.’ The applicant for assistance is akneeling figure, which gives ahand to the saint– St. George is thus portrayed as asaviour. According to the inscription on the horizon‑ tal arm, the supplicant is Mesembrius Theognis, Byzantine general documented in the year 581 AD. The dragon ‑slayer St. George appears for instance on aceramic embossed icon found near the Macedonian town of Vinica (Fig. 4). Since the inscription mixes Latin and Greek, the depiction dates before 733 AD when the area came under the jurisdiction of Rome. On the Fig. 2: Asaint slaying adragon. Hematite gem, the first half of the 6 th century AD? London, The British Museum inv. n. 1986,0501.14. Fig. 3: Processional cross of St. George, bronze, 6th to 7th century AD. From Emesa, Syria. Paris, Cabinet des médailles, inv. Schlumberger 35. Fig. 4: St. Christopher and George. Ceramic icon, before 733 AD. Skopje, Museum of Macedonia. 192 STUDIA HERCYNIA XIX/1–2 left, we see St. Christopher, on the right St. George. Both stand on snakes with human heads and aim at their heads with their spears. St. Christopher is depicted as acynocephalus. By the time the icon was created, the saint was believed to have belonged to the nation of people with dog heads. The murals of aCappadocian church from the beginning of the 7th century depict St. George on horseback (Fig. 5). He is represented here beside another saint, St. Theodore, in afight with two dragons in the form of snakes coiling around atree. In the 9th century AD, the popularity of St. George in the Byzantine Empire starts rising. In churches, pictures of the saint on horseback fighting the dragon are placed in honorary locations. Dragons are represented in different forms, as asnake, big lizard or amonster with multiple heads. In Carolingian Europe, the cult of St. George is also attested, but not his representations. Nevertheless, images of warrior saints on horseback spearing adragon lying on the ground decorated the lost Carolingian pedestal of areliquary silver cross (Fig. 6). In the years 820–830 AD, Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, donated it to the temple treasury of St. Servatius in Maastricht (Stiegmann– Wemhoff 1999, 700). The cross was de‑ stroyed during the French Revolution, but we know it from adrawing made in the 17th century. According to Einhard’swords, it was modelled on ancient works. The pedestal had aform of atriumphal arch with the inscription, which says that it is asign of eternal victory. The cross had thus atriumphal meaning inspired by the classical tradition. This meaning had also the riders fighting dragons who were represented on the inner sides of the gate. These riders made part of aseries of ten unidentified warrior saints who were portrayed in the lowest section. It is to be noted that saints on horseback revolve around the axis of their lances. This ancient Roman pictorial type was revived in Italian art of the 14th century, and we find it also in the group statue of Prague St. George. The earliest legend of St. George in which he saves aprincess from adragon is preserved in aGeorgian text from the 11th century. 2 In the mythical country of Lasia, there lived apagan 2 Jerusalem, The Patriarchal Library, cod.2. Russian translation (Privalova 1977, 73). The oldest Greek version is probably atranslation of the Georgian text from the 12th–13th centuries in Rome, Bibliotheca angelica 46 (C.F.1), ff. 189–191v. Fig. 5: St. Theodor and George struggle with snakes (dragons). Mural painting, early 7th century AD. Cappadocia, Turkey, church Mavrucan no. 3 (after Walter 2003, Fig. 27). 193JAN BAŽANT Fig. 6: Pedestal of the processional cross in the form of atriumphal arch of 820–830 AD, drawing, 17th century. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 10440, fol. 45. emperor named Selinus. The God punished him for his paganism by settling an immense dragon in anearby lake. To appease the dragon, the city residents were feeding it with their children. Finally, the turn came to emperor’sdaughter. At this moment, St. George had acci‑ dentally stopped there to water his horse at the lake. He was on his way back from the service in the Diocletians’ army to his farm in Cappadocia. When he found acrying girl on the shore, he asked her the cause of her grief. The princess explained him everything and told him also that her compatriots were worshiping pagan gods. The saint asked the God for amiracle; the God fulfilled his wish, and the dragon fell at his feet by itself. The saint then lead the beast to the city on abelt, which the princess had lent him. People were frightened, but St. George told them not to be afraid and to adopt the Christian faith. When they did, he took aknife and cut off the dragon’shead. All residents of the city were subsequently baptized. In Europe, this story enjoyed enormous popularity in the following centuries. Undoubtedly, due to the militant atmosphere of the Crusades (1096–1291), during which the heroism and chivalry of knights were celebrated in literary works and visual arts. The initial situation of the pagan myth of Perseus and of the Christian legend of St. George is almost the same, so we may conclude that in the 11th century, the ancient pagan myth in‑ spired the Christian author. In both cases, there is aguilty city to which adragon was sent as apunishment. The beast settled in the water, and people appeased it with human sacrifices. When it came to the ruler’sdaughter, she was also exposed to be devoured by the beast on the shore. The hero returns home, accidentally sees the princess and talks to her. He decides to save her and kills the dragon. It is only from this point that the Christian legend starts departing from the pagan myth. In the 12 th century, Saint George slaying the dragon to rescue the Princess appeared for the first time in visual arts. The oldest depictions are, however, unrelated to the pictorial tradition of Perseus. In these depictions, the traditional pictorial type is combined with an 194 STUDIA HERCYNIA XIX/1–2 allusion to the legend mentioned above. We see the saint on horseback fighting the dragon to which afigure of the princess leading the dragon on her belt was added. This pictorial type combines two subsequent and very different moments of the story in asingle scene. We see at the same time the fierce fight of St. George and its peaceful aftermath– the princess holds the tamed beast on her belt (Fig. 7). In later centuries, the main source of the story about St. George was the ‘Golden Legend’ of Jacobus de Voragine from the sixties of the 13th century. In it, the links between the story of St. George and Perseus were further strengthened. St. George’sfight with the dragon takes place in Libya, and the dragon sits on the border of alake, which was ‘as big as the sea’. Perseus fought with dragon also on the sea shore, and his adventure took place in Libya. In the earliest version of the legend, St. George asked God to tame the monster and the dragon immediately fell to his feet. In the ‘Golden Legend,’ the saint is fighting the dragon, like Perseus. Jacobus de Voragine wrote that when the dragon emerged from the water ‘George mounted on his horse, he crossed himself and boldly attacked the dragon coming at him. He mightily strokes it with his lance and recommended himself to the will of God. He seriously injured the dragon and knocked him to the ground’ (Voragine 1850, 261). Fig. 7: St. George fighting the dragon, English alabaster statuette, 1370–1420. WashingtonD.C., National Gallery of Art, Kress Collection, inv.n. K‑1377. 195JAN BAŽANT From the late 13 th century on, depictions St. George start conforming to the ‘Golden Le‑ gend.’ The saint fights the dragon and to heighten the drama of this duel, the princess does not interfere anymore. She just looks on from adistance. For this, medieval artists could find inspiration in depictions of Perseus’ fight with the dragon in which Princess Andromeda did not take part either. The new pictorial type of St. George’sfight with dragon respected the unity of time and space and in this way prefigured the later development of the iconography of St.George. We find this new type for instance in the Italian book illumination created before 1390 (Fig. 8). The Princess is represented in front of St. George raising her hands in astonishment. The saint pierced the neck of the dragon with his lance the broken end of which lies on the foreground. The horse set its teeth into the dragon’sneck, and the saint raises his sword to cut its head off. The raised hand holding the unsheathed sword is anew attribute of St. George, which must make us pause. Fig. 8: Giovanni di Benedetto, St. George fighting the dragon, Italian book illumination, 1385–1390. Mis‑ sale et horae ad usum Fratrum Minorum, fol. 327v. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 757. 196 STUDIA HERCYNIA XIX/1–2 In the 6 th –11 th century, St. George killed the dragon exclusively with his lance. From the 12th century on, the lance was occasionally replaced by the sword, which frequently appeared beside the lance from the 15th century on. In the 15th century, sword appears in the hand of St. George also in translations of the ‘Legenda Aurea.’ Representations of St. George with the sword was inspired by depictions of Perseus, who was never represented with alance. He always fought with aspecial magic sword, called harpe, which means in Greek ‘asickle’. We can see this harpe depicted in the popular and often illustrated work of Christine de Pizan ‘Letters of Othea’ (Fig. 9). In the French book illumination from the early 15th century, this harpe looks like ascythe. The fight takes place in asea and Andromeda looks on from arocky island. This detail was taken over from representations of Perseus in ancient Roman art, but the princess is not tied to the rock. She kneels in the traditional pose of aChristian saint awaiting her martyrdom. Fig. 9: Perseus rescuing Andromeda, French book illustration, c. 1412. Christine de Pizan, fol. 98v. London, The British Library, Harley 4431. Perseus is represented in medieval armour and mounted on Pegasus. For this, we have no textual or pictorial evidence from classical antiquity; in ancient Greece and Rome Perseus used exc‑ lusively his winged shoes and cap to fly. According to the ancient myth, Bellerophon was the first who tamed Pegasus and fought Chimaera from his back. In the 14th century, however, we 197JAN BAŽANT encounter Perseus riding Pegasus in texts of Bersuire (Berchorius) and Boccaccio. 3 The new trait of Perseus might be aresult of amistake– an ancient depiction of Bellerophon without Chima‑ era could have been easily misinterpreted as adepiction of Perseus. However, the main reason for this innovation was that this new trait assimilated Perseus to St. George, who was fighting from horseback from the very beginning. In the 14th century, St. George and Perseus borrowed traits from each other to stress that the pagan hero was aprecursor of the Christian saint. On awoodcut from the beginning of the 15th century, we find St. George in the traditional pose using his lance (Fig. 10). At the same time, he raises the other hand with asword in the traditional gesture of Perseus. On the right we see the princess, who is represented exactly as Andromeda in the above mentioned French book illumination– she kneels with her hands clasped in prayer. At her side, we see asheep, which alludes to the ‘Golden Legend.’ In the ver‑ sion of Jacobus de Voragine, the dragon was given two sheep every day. When the inhabitants of the city ran out of sheep, they gave one sheep and one boy or girl. Finally, the daughter of the king was offered to the beast together with asheep. From ramparts of the town, king and queen look at the fight of St. George. The motif of the princess and her parents who watch St. George fighting the dragon was inspired by ancient Roman representations of Perseus fighting the dragon, in which Andromeda and her parents were often present. In the depiction of St. George’sfight with the dragon, king and queen appeared for the first time in the 14th century, the princess with asheep started being represented acentury later. Fig. 10: St. George fighting the dragon, woodcut, 1515. Alexander Barclay, Lyfe of Seynt George, West‑ minster 1515, frontispiece. 3 Petrus Berchorius, Ovidius Moralizatus (ed. Utrecht 1962), Fa. 15: ‘Tandem vero super pegasum id est corpus glorificatum per resurrectionem acsendit cum quo in ascensione in paradisum volavit’; Giovanni Boccaccio, Genealogie deorum gentilium libri, XII, cap. XXV ‘in Gorgonem expeditionem assumpsit, habuitque Pegasum alatum equum, et Palladis egydem, et talaria ensemque Mercurii.’