St Georges's Day 2014

A very happy St George's day to you all!

This embroidered panel is the work of the Scottish artist Phoebe Ann Traquair (1852-1936). A valued contributor to the British Arts and Crafts movement this remarkable woman excelled in embroidery, manuscript illumination, bookbinding, furniture decoration and in the painting of large scale murals.

The panel, embroidered in 1904 depicts The Red Cross Knight slaying the dragon. The scene is from The Faerie Queene an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser published in two parts in 1590 and in 1596.

The heroic Redcross Knight appears in the first Canto of the poem, he bears the emblem of Saint George, patron saint of England. The Redcross Knight is declared the real Saint George in Canto X. He also learns that he is of English ancestry, having been stolen by a Fay and raised in Faerieland. In the climactic battle of Book I, Redcross slays the dragon that has laid waste to Eden.

St George is a very complex character!