Kilchberg altar: Saint George
Historical Context
George slaying the dragon is among the most narratively dynamic subjects in the saint iconography of the late fifteenth century, combining the formal demands of the standing saint portrait with the action of mounted combat. Zeitblom's panel from the Kilchberg altar, 1490, in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, completes the identified series from this commission. George's story — a knight rescuing a princess by slaying a dragon in Christ's name — was immediately legible to medieval audiences as allegory of spiritual victory over evil, and its visual drama made it one of the most popular altarpiece subjects across Catholic Europe.
Technical Analysis
The dragon combat provides Zeitblom with the most compositionally dynamic subject in the Kilchberg programme — horse, lance, stricken dragon, and watching princess all requiring careful spatial organisation.
