The Pendant with Saint George is a gold and enamel pendant designed and created by

Lluís Masriera i Rosés Lluís Masriera i Rosés (1872–1958) was a Spanish jewellery designer. Biography He was born in Barcelona in 1872 to the painter Josep Masriera, who was also a well-known silversmith and, along with his brother Francesc Masriera, ran the f ...

, now in the permanent collection of the

National Art Museum of Catalonia The (; ), abbreviated as MNAC (), is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for it ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Description

Masriera created this piece depicting the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

, slaying a dragon in 1901-1902 after returning from the Exposition Universelle in 1900 where he decided to reinvent his entire manner of design including genre and style. The piece features the new staples of Masriera's

Modernisme ''Modernisme'' (, Catalan for "modernism"), also known as Catalan modernism and Catalan art nouveau, is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement associated with the search of a new entitlement of Catalan cultu ...

style including delicate gold work,

plique-à-jour ''Plique-à-jour'' (French for "letting in daylight") is a vitreous enamelling technique where the enamel is applied in cells, similar to cloisonné, but with no backing in the final product, so light can shine through the transparent or trans ...

and

basse-taille ''Basse-taille'' (bahss-tah-ee) is an enamelling technique in which the artist creates a low-relief pattern in metal, usually silver or gold, by engraving or chasing. The entire pattern is created in such a way that its highest point is lower th ...

enamel work, and the incorporation of

precious stones A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, semiprecious stone, or simply gem) is a piece of mineral crystal which, when cut or polished, is used to make jewellery, jewelry or other adornments. Certain Rock (geology), rocks (such ...

. The body of the dragon creates the form of the entire circular pendant highlighting, again, the themes of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

by focusing on nature as the principal source of inspiration to create shapes and art. A single ruby creates the dragon's eye and it is holding six diamonds within its vicious maw. The dragon's body and wings are resplendent with delicate enamel work. By contrast,

himself is an imposing figure wrought from unadorned gold, as is his horse. The pendant measures 4.6 cm x 3.6 cm x 0.8 cm and was purchased in 1966 by the

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya The (; ), abbreviated as MNAC (), is a museum of Catalonia, Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Plaça d'Espanya, Barcelona, Pl Espanya, th ...

(National Art Museum of Catalonia) for their permanent collection. The pendant features in the ''Modern Art'' exhibit, which was renovated in 2014.

The Legend of Saint George

There are many versions of the legend of Saint George but the most traditional tells the story of Saint George in

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. Saint George travelled to Libya and, upon arrival, he happened upon a pond where a ferocious dragon lived. The dragon was terrorizing the country and, every day, to appease the mighty beast, the people had been feeding the dragon a sheep. When the town had no sheep remaining, the dragon had demanded that a young maiden be substituted and sacrificed to him each day. Saint George discovered that all the young girls, save one princess, had already been sacrificed. The king promised his last daughter's hand to any knight that could slay the dragon and break the cursed cycle. The next day, the princess was to be sacrificed, but Saint George sent her back to the castle and approached the dragon himself. The dragon, roused by the hoof beats of Saint George's horse, exited his cave. Saint George was not afraid and keenly moved under the dragon to strike him under its wing where there were no protective scales. The dragon fell dead and the town was saved. Saint George was adopted as the patron saint of

in the 15th century as a mixture of celebrations: one part that adopted the legend as local lore, having occurred in Catalonia and not Libya, and the other, as an allegory for the battle between the early

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

and

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

in Spain.

Modernisme

Modernisme ( Catalan for "art nouveau") is the name given to the Art Nouveau movement in the Catalonia region of northern Spain. It is the equivalent to a number of fin-de-siècle art movements, such as

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

, Secessionism, and

Liberty style Liberty style ( ) was the Italian variant of Art Nouveau, which flourished between about 1890 and 1914. It was also sometimes known as ("floral style"), ("new art"), or ("modern style" not to be confused with the Spanish variant of Art Nouveau ...

, and was active from roughly 1888 to 1911. The ''Modernisme'' movement was centered on the city of

, and is best known for its architectural legacy, mainly the work of

Antoni Gaudí Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( , ; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalans, Catalan architect and designer from Spain, widely known as the greatest exponent of Catalan ''Modernisme''. Gaudí's works have a style, with most located in Barc ...

, but was also significant in sculpture, poetry, theater, and painting. In Spain, Masriera "made the only significant contribution known to date to Art Nouveau jewelry."

Exhibition History

References

{{authority control Collection of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya Saint George and the Dragon