Slaying the Dragon; slaying the Devil. Nature as the Setting of Saint Michael and Saint George in some Late Medieval and Renaissance pictorial examples (15th and early 16th centuries)

Nature became a frequent topic in Late Medieval and Renaissance paintings about Saint Michael and Saint George slaying the dragon or the Devil. These saints started to have a strong presence in the Western Medieval visual culture in the 12th century. The objective to show the victory of Christianity over the religious enemy involved complex image devices increasingly credible and impressive. Therefore, nature became the favourite setting for these battles due to the introduction of certain details, plants and animals to allude to the wild and untamed associated with evil forces. This paper aims to discuss these points in some European paintings made during the 15th and early 16th centuries.