Saint George & the Dragon

(Willpower)

The warrior is the man who, having established attention and silence within himself, tames his earthy nature in order to become the recipient of divine influences.

Inspired by the fifteenth-century Novgorod School icon of St George and the Dragon (Russian Museum of St Petersburg), this panel has as its backdrop an unearthly red sky and mountainous, desert landscape.

St George, a symbol of controlled strength and power, mounted on a white horse, masters the Dragon (but does not kill him), with his spear, which maintains an equilibrium between the earth and sky. This cosmic drama between our higher and lower forces is not a simple dichotomy of good and evil, rather it is a dance of finding the correct point of equilibrium within.

The horse and dragon reflect and perfectly balance each other and both are under the control of the saint, who looks lovingly at the dragon, which reciprocates his gaze, with no violence or hatred in its eyes.

To the right of the dragon we see the cave from where the dragon has emerged, and holding its tail calmly and lovingly is the image of the Feminine principle. A liminal figure sitting at the cave entrance; a threshold of another level of understanding and an interior ascent up the mountain.

As the eye ascends we see atop the mountain a mysterious figure; a Wise Old Man, dressed in green with his eyes turned upwards and beyond the alien red sky.

*Text excerpts from Icons and the Mystical Origins of Christianity by Richard Temple

Commissioned by Adam John Munthe in memory of his late father Malcolm Grane Ludovic Martin Munthe, for his chapel at Southside House, Wimbledon.
Both designs are contained within a mandorla, an ancient sacred geometrical symbol, symbolising union and the intersection of two worlds. St Peter and Mary Magdalene’s mandorla is held within six-fold geometric symmetry whereas St George and the Dragon within a five-fold geometric pattern.