On Dragons and Lizards in the Reliquary Statuette of Saint George in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin

Abstract

The late fifteenth-century German metal reliquary statuette of Saint George is part of the permanent collections of the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin. The iconographic theme of St George and the dragon was widespread across Europe during the Late Middle Ages. It involved a powerful message of the triumph of Christianity over the evil of heresy. The reliquary, connected to two other practically coetaneous pieces, shows an impressive dragon being attacked by the saint. The beast is situated on a circular rustic hill on whose irregular rocky surface lizards and other small dragons (its offspring) move about. Why were they included and what do they mean in this context? What models were these dragons based on? This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of this exceptional example of German metalwork by focusing on the zoomorphic characters in this hagiographical narrative rather than on the saint.