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| “Saint George the Trophy-bearer,” portable icon, 1951. It is included among a series of portable icons that Kontoglou sent to America, after consultation with Father Nicholas Trivelas, for the iconography of the Sacred Church of the Holy Trinity in Charleston, South Carolina. |
By Photios Kontoglou
Saint George the Trophy-bearer: young, beardless, curly-haired, with thick hair flowing at the sides. He is usually depicted on horseback, upon a white horse, armed, piercing with his spear a green dragon that has its lair within a cave. On the left side there appears a castle upon a rock, and within it the king and the queen, with trumpeters, soldiers, and people. Below the fortress and outside the gate stands the princess, whom the Saint saved from the teeth of the dragon, according to the popular story.
Saint George is also painted on foot, clothed in a breastplate and holding a spear and shield. Sometimes he is depicted seated upon a throne. More rarely he is painted holding his severed head and praying, as is seen in a wall painting of the Monastery of Xenophontos on Mount Athos.
The martyric tortures of Saint George are painted around the borders of his icons or as independent scenes in wall paintings. These are:
a) The Saint being judged by the ruler
b) In prison
c) His flesh being torn
d) Being tortured on the wheel
e) Being cast into quicklime
f) Being beaten with ox-hide whips
g) His head being cut off
h) Being buried by the faithful
Source: From the book of Photios Kontoglou, Expression of Orthodox Iconography, volume I. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.
