Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund, in honor of Brian Allen, Director of Studies, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (1993-2012)
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2012.4
Classification:
Sculptures
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
religious and mythological subject | St. George and the dragon | dragon | spear
Currently On View:
On view
Exhibition History:
In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30)
Publications:
John Pope-Hennessy, Some Bronze Statuettes by Francesco Fanelli, Burlington Magazine, vol. 95, May 1953, pp. 158-159, 161, fig. 12, N1 +B87 Oversize (YCBA)Sotheby's sale catalogue : Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art : 8 July 2011, Sotheby's, London, 2011, pp. 48-49, Lot 58, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)Ben van Beneden, Royalist Refugees : William and Margaret Cavendish in the Rubens House, 1648-1660, Rubenshuis & Rubenianum, Antwerp, 2006, pp. 198-199, DA407 N5 R693 2006 (YCBA)Vertue's Note Book A.x., Walpole Society, vol. 24, 1936, p. 110, N12 W35 +A1 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Fanelli was a Florentine sculptor who worked in England, receiving a salary from King Charles I at a time when British taste had shifted decisively toward Italian art. The patron saint of England, St. George has long held significance for the royal family, who associated themselves with the bravery of the man who slayed a dragon. A version of this bronze was displayed in the king’s cabinet room at his palace at Whitehall in London, a potent symbol of the monarch as both the country’s worthiest knight and its leading art patron. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025