St George Fighting the Dragon

There are still reliefs showing St George on many buildings in Venice, showing that they once belonged to the abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore or the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. The relief commissioned by the Scuola from Sansovino’s pupil Pietro da Salò in 1551 outdid these older works in its high degree of plasticity and the entirely new dynamic of the depiction of the battle. The relief must have created a sensation even before its installation, attracting the attention of Venetian artists and connoisseurs, among them Tintoretto, who made use of Pietro da Salò’s composition in his own St George and the Dragon.