The dragon speared by a naked youth is a fanciful subject typical of the imaginative creatures found in the work of medieval goldsmiths and in manuscript illumination.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Pricket Candlestick with a Naked Youth Fighting a Dragon
Date:ca. 1140–60
Geography:Made in Meuse Valley, Netherlands
Culture:South Netherlandish
Medium:Gilded copper alloy
Dimensions:Overall: 7 5/8 x 6 x 4in. (19.4 x 15.2 x 10.2cm)
Classification:Metalwork-Copper alloy
Credit Line:Gift of George Blumenthal, 1941
Object Number:41.100.131
Sigismond Bardac(?), Paris; George and Florence Blumenthal, Paris and New York (until 1941)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition," February 17–March 24, 1940.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces from the George Blumenthal Collection," December 8, 1943–?
New York. Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture. "Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages. Vessels for Church and Table," July 12, 2006–October 15, 2006.
Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, New York: Volume 2, Sculpture and Bronzes, Mediaeval and Renaissance. Paris: A. Lévy, 1926. pl. XLIV.
Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1940. no. 271, p. 78, pl. XXX.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Masterpieces in the Collection of George Blumenthal: A Special Exhibition. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1943. no. 5.
Schrader, J. L. "A Medieval Bestiary." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 44, no. 1 (Summer 1986). p. 44.
Strickland, Debra Higgs. Saracens, Demons, & Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. p. 93, fig. 36.
Barnet, Peter. "'Beasts of Every Land and Clime': An Introduction to Medieval Aquamanilia." In Lions, Dragons, & Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table, edited by Peter Barnet, and Pete Dandridge. New York: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, 2006. no. 43, p. 9.
Barnet, Peter, and Pete Dandridge, ed. Lions, Dragons, & Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table. New York: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, 2006. no. 43, p. 184.
Dandridge, Pete. "Exquisite Objects, Prodigious Technique: Aquamanilia, Vessels of the Middle Ages." In Lions, Dragons, & Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table, edited by Peter Barnet, and Pete Dandridge. New York: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, 2006. no. 43, p. 51; p. 42, no. 35.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Art." In The Ronald S. Lauder Collection: Selections from the 3rd century BC to the 20th century, Germany, Austria, and France. New York: Neue Galerie, 2011. p. 45.
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The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world, encompassing the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance.