A Guest at the Palace | “Saint George and the Dragon” by Paolo Uccello

28 May — 01 November 2021
Palazzo Cini. La Galleria, Venezia

Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1440. Tempera, lakes and resin varnishes on panel; 62 × 102 cm. Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris.

The Guest at the Palace initiative, promoted by the Art History Institute of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, was created through collaborations with some of the most prestigious Italian and international museum institutions. Conceived to temporarily enrich the museum holdings of Galleria di Palazzo Cini, the project features the exhibition of particularly important artworks granted on extraordinary loan and hosted for several months in the historic residence of Vittorio Cini, which houses the masterpieces of his remarkable art collection.

From 28 May to 1 November 2021, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Giorgio Cini Foundation (1951–2021), one of the most remarkable works by the celebrated Florentine Renaissance artist Paolo Uccello is on display: the panel depicting St George and the Dragon, generously loaned by the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris to coincide with the loan of Botticelli’s The Judgement of Paris from the Cini collection for the exhibition Botticelli. Un laboratoire de la Renaissance (11 September 2020 – 25 January 2021). The presence of this Parisian masterpiece enriches the core of the Florentine 15th-century section of the permanent collection, creating new resonances; and symbolically evokes the miles christianus that features prominently in the logo of the institution founded on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in 1951, at the behest of Vittorio Cini in memory of his son Giorgio.

Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello

The painting of St George and the Dragon was purchased by Nélie Jacquemart at the Stevens auction in London in 1899; it had previously been in the collection of the Florentine antiquarian Stefano Bardini.

The painting is characterised by an elegant heraldic-chivalric composition that captures the climactic moment of the action: St George, lance at the ready, has just pierced the monster’s jaws, piercing its three-pronged tongue; the surcoat bearing the cross banner (the Cross of St George) rises above the armour in the heat of the assault, whilst the horse rears up; balancing the dynamism of the struggle is the silhouette of the princess, cloaked in a precious floral-patterned robe of embossed velvet.

The rural landscape is not reduced to a single vanishing point, but consists of two sections conceived from different angles of view: the ploughed fields stretch out before us, with the path coming to life with figures and leading straight to the white, turreted walls; to the right, the bird’s-eye view, amidst the gentle slopes, widens and compels us to look up.

Opening hours and access procedures

Open daily from 11am to 7pm, closed on Tuesdays.

All editions

May 24 – July 21, 2014

Portrait of a Young Man with a Lute by Agnolo Bronzino

September 5 – November 2, 2014

Adoration of the Shepherds by Lorenzo Lotto

June 17 – September 28, 2015

The Madonna of Pontassieve by Beato Angelico

September 19 – November 15, 2015

Capriccio with a Small Square by Francesco Guardi

April 8 – June 6, 2016