St George on Horseback with the Dead Dragon

St George; the knight is depicted on horseback, holding a lance; the dead dragon lies underneath. Although the subject is clearly St George, the 'A' ('Altosterreich'?) on the caparison of the horse appears in this way on other Cranach prints and possibly refers to the Emperor Maximilian himself, who was known to be involved in raising the status of the knightly Order of St George during this period. There is a castle in the right background and the two Saxon shields are in the boughs at upper left.

This woodcut represents an important and well-documented stage in the history of colour printing.

1st state: the electoral coat of arms, sable in base; the paper has been prepared with an indigo wash. The manner in which the wash has been applied is suggestive of an atmospheric landscape, and serves as a clue to the original purpose of these prints, which was to emulate the highly finished drawings on a coloured ground fashionable at that date. The line block which registered the heightened areas was printed first, inked with some kind of glue to which gold leaf was then applied and the outline block in black was printed second.

The outline block was a self-contained composition which could be printed as a monochrome print, and further impressions of the 'St George' were printed in this way at a later date.

2nd state: the electoral coat of arms, sable in chief