Tympanum with St George and the Dragon

Entry

The present wooden tympanum bearing a scene of St George and the Dragon was donated in 1867 to the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Gezelschap (KOG) by one G.H. Kuiper, presumably the Amsterdam contractor of the same name.³ The relief’s exact provenance is unsure. An annotation in the inventory book of the KOG states that that tympanum originated from the water pump house of the Sint-Jorishof, an enclosed courtyard near the Waalsekerk in Amsterdam.⁴ Indeed, an engraving in Olfert Dapper’s Historische beschryving der stadt Amsterdam (Historical Description of the City Amsterdam, 1663) (RP-P-AO-23-63-2) shows a very similar representation of St George on the pump house’s ornamental facade, crowned by a vertically oriented gable element in the mannerist Floris style, articulated by large concave curves on either side. In its current state, however, the semicircular scene functions as a tympanum, framed above by a classicist, arched moulding with coffers adorning the intrados. If in fact the engraving is of the same relief, one can only assume that the crowning gable was eventually replaced by the tympanum – as a consequence of disrepair or changing tastes – with the separately carved scene either reintegrated or copied. Also quite conceivable, however, is that the engraving reflects the printmaker’s personal improvisation versus the actual situation.

The present relief of St George and the Dragon is fairly literally based on an engraving after a design by Giulo Clovio (RP-P-BI-6500X) made by the Dutch printmaker Cornelis Cort in 1578 during his sojourn in Rome. Leeuwenberg dated the tympanum to the middle of the seventeenth century, without further elucidation.⁵ Stylistic considerations, however, suggest a more probable dating of circa 1600. The same dragon type, as yet clearly inspired by models from the late Middle Ages, also appears on a stone tablet adorning the facade of the house In de Draeck (In the Dragon) at 43 Lieve Vrouwestraat in Bergen op Zoom, built around 1600.⁶ Furthermore, the tympanum’s arched upper moulding with ornamental coffers is highly comparable to that of the Oudemanhuispoort on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam, which dates from circa 1601.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025