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Saint George Killing the Dragon

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Saint George Killing the Dragon
"Saint George Killing the Dragon" by Bernat Martorell

Bernat Martorell, a Catalan painter, painted the elegant photo of “Saint George Killing the Dragon” in 1434. A theme behind the amazing legend of Saint George and the Dragon says that there are few friends who will make extreme sacrifices. Martorell uses different elements of art such as space, lining, and color, and different principles of design, such as movement, to take us through the vivid painting. The legend is said to start off to take place in a small city in Libya named Silene. He met a hermit who told him that the town was being ravaged by a dragon with a tail that is as long as fifty feet. To satisfy the dragon, the people of Silene would sacrifice two sheep a day. If the sheep failed to please him, they would feed the dragon the children of the town, which was done by lottery. One-day the king’s daughter, Sabra was chose to be sacrificed, so she was taken to the cave where the dragon stayed in the town of Silene. Shortly after Princess Sabra arrived, Saint George came rushing through the village to save her. He stroked his spear at the dragon, but the dragon’s scales were so hard that it broke his weapon into a thousand pieces and Saint George fell from his horse. He pulled out his sword and charged the dragon under his wings where he had no scales and the dragon was slayed. The town of Silene was free from the horrific dragon sabotaging them and their poor children thanks to Saint George. The elements of art used in the painting are space, lines, and color. These three elements guide the viewer through the painting. Space is used to show depth. The top of the picture is a small castle, which shows that is it distant. The bottom of the picture shows a large dragon, which shows that it is closer than the castle. Lines are one of the main guides of the painting and it appears indirectly. There is one line in the photo and it cuts it diagonally in half. Martorell did not just indirectly

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