Saint George Slaying the Dragon

Uccello was obsessed with perspective, and even in this early work you can see him experimenting. The dragon's wings spread out in a pattern of round spots, the horse rears with its forelegs in exact profile, and the lance makes a hard diagonal that ties the two creatures together. Look at the silver leaf on the knight's armour, which has darkened with time but once gleamed like real metal. The saint's face is calm and almost bored, in contrast to the writhing beast, and the princess, in a gown of red and gold, holds the dragon on a leash as if it were already tamed, which is how the legend ends. The landscape behind is a stack of stylised rocks and a pale sky.

The painting came to Melbourne in 1949 through the Felton Bequest, at a time when it was attributed to the Sienese artist Domenico di Bartolo. Most scholars now accept it as Uccello, which makes it one of the very few works by this rare artist outside Europe. It matters as a bridge between the courtly Gothic taste of the early fifteenth century and the new Renaissance interest in space and volume. The memorable detail is the dragon's spotted wings, which look less like a monster than like a beautiful, dangerous butterfly.

Did You Know? When Melbourne bought the panel in 1949 it was catalogued as the work of a different artist; the Uccello attribution came later.