St. George and the Princess

Saint George and the Princess is a fresco by the Italian master Pisanello, located in the Pellegrini Chapel of the church of Sant'Anastasia, Verona, northern Italy. It is one of the most notable works of the International Gothic painting.

The work was commissioned by the Pellegrini family, as testified by Andrea Pellegrini's testament of 1429. The external fresco, only partially preserved, was part of a cycle decorating the whole chapel.

The date of the work is uncertain. It is generally assigned to the period between the painter's return from Rome in 1433 and his departure to Ferrara in 1438. The terracotta decoration of the chapel is documented as existing in 1436 and the frescoes are perhaps from the same period, although the two works would hardly coexist. Some scholars date it to 1444-1446, after the Council of Ferrara, due to details connected to the Byzantine diplomats who took part in the latter (such as the horse with broken nostrils used by the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, or the style of some figures' hats). Such details could be however come from Manuel II Palaiologos' procession at the Council of Constance (1414–1418): similar elements existed in the lost frescoes by Pisanello in St. John Lateran, documented by some surviving drawings based on those frescoes.

The fresco was long exposed to water seepages from the ceiling of the church, and was severely damaged, especially in the left part which contains the dragon. The surviving part was detached from the wall in the 19th century, but this caused the loss of the metallic and gilt decorations.

The fresco was formed by two parts: the right one, with St. George leaving the Princess of Trebizond (Trabzon), which is in good conditions; and the left one, with the dragon in the sea, which is nearly lost.

The surviving section shows the moment of St. George's legend in which he is mounting his horse (shown from the rear) before sailing to kill the dragon which was to devour the daughter of the city's king. Behind the princess, on the right, are three horses with knights, and a crouched ram. On the left are a hound and a companion dog.

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