Orazio de Santis (Italy, active 1568–84), after Pompeo Cesura, called Aquilano (Italy, d. 1571), Saint George, circa 1570, engraving, Cincinnati Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Walter I. Farmer, 1952.339.

Audio Description

This engraving of Saint George was made around 1570 by the Italian printmaker Orazio de Santis, who was active between 1568 and 1584, after a design by Pompeo Cesura, called Aquilano, who died in 1571. It was given to the Cincinnati Art Museum by Mr. and Mrs. Walter I. Farmer, and its accession number is 1952.339. This print presents a dramatic scene in black and white of the mounted Saint George slaying the dragon to save a princess. In this very compressed composition, the action plays out from upper left to lower right on a rocky hillside topped with dead trees whose roots barely cling to the ground. The horse rears as its mount, who wears form-fitting armor, a crested helmet, and cape that billows out behind him, thrusts a long spear into the mouth of a muscular dragon that climbs the rocks with four taloned feet. A ridge of scales follows the dragon’s spine all the way down to the tip of its thrashing tail. Beside the dragon a woman flees, arms upstretched. Her back is to the viewer, and she looks back at the grisly event. She is dressed in a voluminous flowing garment that has fallen from her upper torso and billows in front of her, amplifying the sense of movement. In the lower right corner are skeletal remains, presumably of the dragon’s past victims.

Label Copy

This engraving of Saint George was made around 1570 by the Italian printmaker Orazio de Santis, who was active between 1568 and 1584, after a design by Pompeo Cesura, called Aquilano, who died in 1571. It was given to the Cincinnati Art Museum by Mr. and Mrs. Walter I. Farmer, and its accession number is 1952.339. This engraving is one of twenty-two prints that Walter and Renate Hobirk Farmer presented to the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1952. Engraved by Orazio de Santis after a design by Pompeo Cesura, it depicts the legend of Saint George and the dragon. Charging forward on horseback, the warrior saint prepares to spear the dragon with his lance, freeing the captured princess at right. Strong contrasts between light and dark and the dynamic poses of the figures heighten the drama of the print.

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