Saint George from a Set of Medallions
from an Icon Frame
Click to enlarge image.
Byzantine (Constantinople?), late 11th-early 12th century
Gold, silver, and cloisonné enamel
Diam. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. (17.190.674)
Byzantine icons frequently were set into frames decorated with medallions containing portrait busts of saints. The medallion of Saint George, one of nine in the Metropolitan's collection, comes from such a frame. Originally, as we know from a nineteenth-century photograph, it held an icon of the archangel Gabriel.
A young dark-haired Saint George wears a colorful mantle decorated with an overall heart-shaped pattern. He holds a book and a cross. His halo, ornamented with small crosses, is made with silver instead of the usual gold cloisons, which increases the coloristic effect of the medallion. His sideways gaze may have been directed toward the central image of Gabriel.
Saint George was venerated as a military saint beginning in early Christianity; however, there is no historical data for his life. It is thought that he may have been martyred at the end of the third or fourth century in Palestine, at Diospolis, where the center for his veneration was located. The legend that presents him as a Cappadocian knight who killed a dragon in order to rescue a maiden arose later in the Middle Ages. His popularity in England may have been encouraged by returning crusaders.
It is possible that these enamels were brought to Georgia by Maria of Alania, daughter of the Georgian king Bagrat' IV, who married Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071-78). If so, they may have stimulated the manufacture of enamels in Georgia in the twelfth century and their use on icon frames.
Classroom Hints:
Notice: materials, eyes, gestures, patterns, colors
Discuss: function
Compare: Constantine I, Saint Demetrios, and Double-Faced Enkolpion
Next Image
Saint George from a Set of Medallions
from an Icon Frame