New! St. George the Victorious – St. George and the Dragon – Fortunino Matania – Beautiful Catholic Art

We like this picture a lot. It was called St. George the Victorious and was painted by the Italian artist Fortunino Matania for the cover of the April 1962 issue of Look and Learn, a wholesome British children’s magazine. By then the artist was in his 80s and had spent his career working through the Golden Age of Illustration. It is perfect for what it does: it shows the calm knight beautifully triumphing over the dragon with a vividness and realism, but not too much. It shows the drama of the moment. It shows the meaning.

St. George was a real human being; he was a soldier in the Praetorian Guard in the Roman army under Emperor Diocletian. About 303 A.D., he was martyred for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The dragon tales showed up about 900 years later. The church has interpreted the dragon as a symbol of evil, paganism, and Satan, and the fight between George and the dragon was a matter of spiritual warfare. Given that the Christians won over the pagans in the Roman Empire in 312 A.D., under Emperor Constantine, it can be said that men like St. George won that spiritual war. (source: Focus.org)

We all have fights and struggles, and it is good to approach them with faith, asking George to intercede, and knowing that God can win any fight. We place ourselves in his omnipotent hands.

Fortunino Matania (1881–1963) learned to paint from his father, Eduardo Matania, a successful Italian illustrator. He had his first exhibition at age 11, and his first commercial illustration work at 14. Born in Italy, he moved to London at 21 to do a royal commission, and spent most of the rest of his life doing more royal commissions and British history illustrations, as well as illustrations for many books and magazines and the Encyclopedia Britannica. He had a flair for capturing dramatic moments with a beautiful picture. (source: buru.org.uk)

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a blank border around the image. Approximately 0.5" wide for 5x7, 1.3" for 8.5x11, 1.6" for 11x14, and 1.75" for 13x17 and 16x20. For the two poster sizes, 18x24 and 24x36, we use 0.5" borders. We do this because the ratio of the rectangle of the art almost never matches the rectangle of the paper, and if it did happen to match one size, it would not match the others. Most fine art printers do this because otherwise they’d have to crop the art or warp it to make it fit the paper. The border looks good. It gives the picture a faux matted appearance. There is almost always a little more border either on the left-right sides, or the top-bottom, depending on whether the ratio of the art is wider or taller than the paper.

We make Archival Quality fine art prints:

– Acid-free paper

– Archival pigments

– Cardboard backer for sizes 11x14 and less.

– Above story of the art

– Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal-clear bag.

– Rated to last 200+ years without fading if kept dry and out of the direct sun.

Thanks for your interest!

+JMJ+

Sue & John

Lincoln, Nebraska

“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art.”

~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and any image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Catholic Art And Jewelry