St George Fighting the Dragon

The painting captures the climax of the legend where Saint George subdues a dragon to save a princess. The saint raises his sword for a final blow as his horse rears over the beast, which has already been pierced by a red-and-white striped lance. The shattered remains of the weapon lie on the dark soil in the foreground of a tranquil, rolling landscape.

In the Renaissance Neoplatonic tradition, the battle between the knight and the dragon was frequently interpreted as an allegory for the triumph of the rational soul and divine virtue over the 'dragon' of the lower passions and base matter. This motif also resonates with alchemical imagery where the slaying or fixing of the dragon represents the purification of the prima materia.