St George To The Rescue

[poliphilo]

St George intervenes to rescue the crusader William Belet and his squire from the Saracens (at a  battle near Antioch in 1097) on the tympanum over the south door of St. George's Fordington, Dorchester. According to tradition the adoption of St George as England's patron saint can be dated from this incident.

Great story. Fabulous example of early medieval art.


 

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Are Belet and his Squire to the left? The apparently naked knights, I mean.
This is fantastic!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you'll find they're wearing close-fitting chainmail- as in the Bayeux tapestry- and pointy helmets with nose-guards :)

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* That makes sense.
:)

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

That's an amazing piece of medieval sculpture.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Oh, forgot to say, the icon is a much more modern and hence anachronistic version of St George from Prauge.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Nice icon, whatever its age.

The Fordington tympanum is a masterpiece- and "nobody" knows its there.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Oh cool!
It looks like those stones were taken from somewhere else and added to the wall?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure of the history, but I believe the tympanum was always at Fordington. Maybe the wall had to be rebuilt at some stage.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

That may be. They do look cropped though, don't they?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It also looks as if at some stage the block was dropped and broken.

[sovay]

According to tradition the adoption of St George as England's patron saint can be dated from this incident.

Awesome.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ain't it just!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Fantastic artwork and story! I cleaned up the photo to make the image a little easier to see: http://pics.livejournal.com/athenais/pic/0000cqwz/

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That's great. The carving is easier to see in your clean-up than it was in real life.