Saint George and the Dragon, relief from the niche of the Orsanmichele

Having been commissioned by the Florentine guild of armorers and sword makers, Donatello completed the large marble statue of Saint George for a niche in the Orsanmichele church probably between 1415 and 1417. He carved a relief of Saint George and the dragon on the base of the shrine. The plaster cast shown here is a copy of that relief, which, as the first shallow relief of the Italian Renaissance, being a landmark artwork in the history of sculpture. Despite the shallowness of the carving, Donatello succeeded in creating a vivid portrayal of the scene. In Italy the term rilievo schiacciato was used for such reliefs, which required virtuoso carving. As the inventor of this type of relief, Donatello won great admiration even from his Renaissance contemporaries. His relief was, furthermore, a precursor of the use of perspective in art. Although the Museum of Fine Arts ordered plaster casts of the statue and the entire niche, only this detail has survived.