Saint George (russian: Святой Георгий) is a Russian

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

icon created in

Veliky Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

before the

Mongol invasion of Rus' The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered Kievan Rus' in the 13th century, destroying numerous southern cities, including the largest cities, Kiev (50,000 inhabitants) and Chernihiv (30,000 inhabitants), with the only major cities escaping destr ...

in the 12th century. The main icon of the

Yuriev Monastery The St. George's (Yuriev) Monastery (russian: Юрьев монастырь) is usually cited as Russia's oldest monastery. It stands in 5 kilometers south of Novgorod on the left bank of the Volkhov River near where it flows out of Lake Ilmen. T ...

for a long time, it is kept at the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, ''Gosudarstvennaya Tretyâkovskaya Galereya''; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered th ...

at the moment. The date of its creation is unknown, but 1130 was agreed upon as this date is on the back of the icon. However, the back itself was only made in the 19th century. Art critics also state either 1030, which is the foundation year of the Yuriev Monastery, or 1130-1140s to the Yuriev Monastery's

consecration Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

ceremony. This theory is supported by art historians

Viktor Lazarev Viktor Nikitich Lazarev (russian: Ви́ктор Ники́тич Ла́зарев; 3 September (22 August O.S.) 1897 – 1 February 1976) was a Russian art critic and historian who specialized in medieval Byzantine, Russian, and Armenian rel ...

, Engelina Smirnova and Natalya Salko. Viktor Lazarev states that its size is suitable for that purpose. The iconography corresponds to the common since 10th-century Byzantium depiction of Saint George not as a warrior, but as a young

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

References

{{12C-painting-stub Icons in the Tretyakov Gallery 12th-century Christianity 12th-century paintings 1130

See also

References