Baylee Staufenbiel the popularity of the icon in several cultures, and what has been brought under its patronage (armies, cities, etc Dr. West RUSS 210/426 Midterm Paper 1 Patronage and Importance of St. George and the Dragon Iconography is, arguably, one of the most influential pieces of art in the world. Icons are known for the many images and depictions of holy scenes that appear across several cultures. Though icons are diverse, there are always uniting characteristics. Each icon is painted in a way that allows the viewer to understand the story, no matter how much information is included in the actual icon itself. Based off of little pieces within in the image itself, the viewer will be able to recall the story and the symbolism …show more content…
There are many icons, however, that have more of a following than others. One of the most popular icons to date is “St. George and the Dragon”. There are countless variations of the legend that have been circulated through armies, cities, and cultures. The icon had an extremely wide influence in terms of patronage, though usually considered a fairy tale, or a child’s bedtime story. The legend of St. George goes as follows: ‘St. George was a knight and born in Cappadocia. At some point in his life he went to the city of Silene in the providence of Libya. Close to this city there was a lake where a dragon lived. This dragon was poisoning the people of the country with its breath. To appease the dragon, the townspeople would give him two sheep. Eventually they began to run out of sheep to give. They then started feeding the young people of the city to the dragon - this included the rich and the poor. Eventually the King’s daughter was the child to be sacrificed. It was this day that St. George appeared. He found the daughter weeping and asked her what was wrong, she told him about the dragon. Soon the dragon appeared, and St. George on his white horse, took out his sword, made a cross, and charged at the dragon. St. George wounded the dragon and had it led back into the city, from here he stated that if the people of Silene were baptized that he would kill the dragon - so it was done.(Abstracted from The Golden Legend by …show more content…
That is what makes “St. George and the Dragon” so interesting. This has to do with the spread of the icons. Icons were art that could be, fairly easily, reproduced. Due to their significance, like St. George’s triumph over evil, they were wide spread and hung up in homes and churches. This led to more and more people becoming aware of the story. St. George represented an idea Christian knight. He was the embodiment of what men on the crusades should have been like. When the stories about him started circulating people were in awe of how he was represented. As said before he appeared during the siege of Jerusalem, without the icon depiction of St. George, it is very plausible that the men would not have known “who” it was that headed their
Another association between the symbol of Grendel and the Catholic/Christian Church is that his modest background almost seems to mirror the ambiguity of the bible.
However, the artist used Christian meaning in symbols to celebrate their religion. Such symbols were a piece of garland meant victory over death, a tendril was the Eucharist, a nude figure is Christmas, a peacock is immortality, and a flying bird is a soul flying to heaven.
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, perhaps the most perfectly wrought of all medieval English romances, has called forth a wealth of scholarly commentary, in regard to its main symbol, the Pentangle” (Beauregard). Christianity is evident in this epic poem. “Some knights in the Medieval Era would carry a shield symbolizing bravery and battle; Sir Gawain is symbolized by the Pentangle that shows his morals” (Beauregard). The pentangle symbolizes the virtues to which Gawain aspires: to possess brotherly love, courtesy, piety, and chastity, “First he was deemed flawless in his five senses;/ secondly his five fingers that were never at fault;/ thirdly the five wounds Christ received on the cross/…The fifth set of five which I heard the knight followed / including friendship and fraternity/, purity and politeness that impressed at all times/, and pity which
Another interesting motif is the international influence in the paintings. Even though the paintings have extremely Catholic origins they have some elements of other cultures. One of the biggest ways this is shown is in the sibyls that are between some of the scenes. These sibyls have origins from Africa, Asia, Greece, and Ionia. These paintings also show departure from traditional Catholic values in some of the symbolism the paintings show. In the center of the ceiling there is a painting of man and God, yet God is painted inside the shape of the human brain. In
Let’s define what is an icon and give a brief history of icons. An icon is sacred art, usually a fresco or mosaic of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, martyred Saints or scenes from the bible that are given special veneration. This type of sacred art first appeared in the catacombs were the first Christians would gather to worship during periods of persecution. The scenes depicted were of Christ’s family, gospel stories or stories from the Hebrew scriptures. As Christianity began to grow, and after the Edict of Milan the Emperor Constantine decreed that Christians were no longer to be persecuted. In response to this new decree, by the fourth century icons became a way of teaching the Gospel and a way to
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has an overload of symbolic archetypes, though one of the most symbolic, in my opinion, is Gawain’s shield. This symbolic shield accompanies Gawain on his journey to the Green Knight’s Chapel and has multiple meanings within itself. One is the picture of the Virgin
The five pointed star is primarily ``a token of truth''; truth is the largest significance of the pentangle (30. 626). Yet this star is no ordinary symbol. Gawain's coat of arms links more strongly to its symbolic meaning than most other knightly symbols, which were often taken from nature and mythology. The pentangle is not an ancestral coat of arms, for it applies to Gawain only. Thus Gawain takes it much more seriously than other knights would consider their own symbols. He defines his life by this symbol and attempts, with much success, to exemplify the traits it represents.
There are elements connected to prechristian celtic mythology, like the waiting period of twelve months and a day, the Beheading Game, and the Temptation Game. The Green Knight is a pagan character, just like the Green Man or Wild Man of the woods that symbolizes folklore. The theme is pagan belief. The pentangle is a pagan symbol just like Gawain’s shield, with the pentangle on one side and the Virgin Mary on the other.
At the council, 338 members met to rule on the use of images to depict religious figures and ideas. This assembly, including Emperor Constantine and Leo, rules that “the unlawful art of painting living creatures blasphemed the fundamental doctrine of our salvation—namely, the Incarnation of Christ, and contradicted the six holy synods” (Iconoclastic Council, 1). The Iconoclastic Council bans the use of images and pictures to depict religious ideologies and figures because they feared that worshippers honored the image over the actual person, place, or thing represented. To support their argument, the council recalls the Holy Book in which God states, “Thou shall not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath…They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,…and served the creature more than the Creator” (2). Unlike John, this council uses stronger textual evidence from the Holy Book in order to validate their argument against icons. Furthermore, they argued that “folly” painter constructed the icons to undermine the icons. Council members aimed to demonstrate the icons as evil creations because religious affiliates did not construct them. Nevertheless, the council banned all images, relics, and other representations of
The exterior of the church is very different from the ones we are used to in the sense that the church itself is vividly painted with all types of icons dating back to the mid 1960s. The tradition for this types of paintings is however rather old and in the orthodox creed these paintings are particularly important because they show the saints for whom the church was erected and whose name they usually take.
Symbols are important in each story to define the theme. Close observation of the symbols within each story proves to one their
To begin, a better understanding of the time period in which these paintings were created (ca. 1788-1790) is needed to fully analyze all the symbols each has to offer. During this time in American history, religion continued to be an important part of society. Of course, during the mid 1700’s the Great Awakening
Just as it’s human nature to believe in something larger or more powerful than oneself, it is also human nature to express that divinity through art, this is proven time and time again in human history. Picturing the divine is a type of testimony to show a cultures greatness. The painting Arhats Giving Alms to Beggars comes from the Chinese culture of the Southern Song period. Whereas, the mosaic Christ as Pantocrator comes from the Byzantine culture of the Greek Orthodox tradition. Although these paintings come from very different backgrounds both cultures show the divine and their pressure on mankind to follow the rules, such as giving away worldly desires. By doing so and letting go of material possessions, mankind can be hopeful of
Icons are pictures that are used to embody a person, place, thing, or idea. McCloud hammers this concept home by drawing random things, such as a cow (McCloud, pg. 26), but reminds the reader that it is technically not a real cow. It is just an image.
a lot of images to say what it means, for example, a person, a hand, water,