Athos Holy Mount

Athonite Paper Icons	4.13 St George 1858 (?) Collection of Simonopetra Monastery Reverse of a double-sided engraved copperplate 35 x 24 cm Engraved on Mount Athos Engraver: Euthymios, hierodeacon
	St George, mounted and wearing armour and a flowing cloak, is spearing a winged dragon lying on the ground. His steed, richly accoutred and with its tail tied in a knot, is galloping to the right. The saint seems calm, in contrast to the frightened eyes of his mount and the terrible appearance of the dragon. On the horse's rump sits a small slave with a wine jar, and on the right stands a princess in front of a palace, on the balcony of which is the king with the keys of the city, and behind him the queen. At the top of the icon the hand of God appears in a semicircular glory. The scene is based on the tradition that the saint saved the daughter of the pagan King Selvius from a dragon that would demand a human sacrifice to allow the people of the nearby city to draw water from the lake or spring it guarded. So grateful was the king that he and all the townsfolk converted to Christianity. The slave on the horse's rump comes from another tradition, that St George freed him at the moment when he was serving his Turkish master wine. The work can be attributed to the Athonite craftsman Euthymios, since it is engraved on the reverse of the St Marina copperplate (paper icon no. 4.12) and shares with the latter the same technique and decoration. Of the 20 or so extant paper icons of St George, half show iconographic affinities to Euthymios' engraving.
	Bibliography: Unpublished.
	H.I.S.
	Index of exhibits of Monastery of Simonopetra 19th century

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