Yale Center for British Art

Creator:: Francesco Fanelli, 1577–after 1641, Italian, active in Britain (from ca. 1632)
Title:: St. George and the Dragon
Date:: ca. 1635
Materials & Techniques:: Bronze, on a later wooden base with tortoiseshell veneer and gilt bronze mounts
Dimensions:: Overall: 11 1/2 × 11 1/2 × 8 inches (29.2 × 29.2 × 20.3 cm)
Credit Line:: 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
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