УДК: 75.05.046(497.

5)”17”
271.2-526.62(497.5)”17”
Aleksandra Kučeković
University of Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Theory,
Belgrade, Serbia

Saint George Slaying the Dragon on an 18th Century

Icon from Slavonia - Traditional Iconography
and Popular Piety

Abstract: The paper presents an icon from Slavonia (Croatia) dating from
the first half of the 18th century and featuring the most popular miracle of Saint
George – the slaying of the dragon and saving the princess.1 The icon is inter-
esting in several aspects considering its iconography, stylistic characteristics and
possible origins of the painter. Starting with the latter, the analysis of the painter’s
style suggests that he could have been a close disciple or an associate of the fa-
mous Hristofor Žefarović who migrated to the Metropolitanate of Karlovci from
Macedonia in the 1730s. His distinct figurative style belonged to the so called
zograf painting in Serbian 18th century art, standing at the touching point of the
post-Byzantine tradition and European baroque and forming a specific format of
popular art. The icon in case also provides evidence for the migratory reaches
of painters from the south of the Balkans in the early and mid-18th century and
their influence on the creation of a specific brand of popular visual culture in the
Orthodox communities in Slavonia and Croatia. The subject depicting the trium-
phal figure of the Saint on horseback defeating the beast was well established
in Byzantine and post-Byzantine tradition, but in later centuries it was treated
with increasing decorativeness and imaginative details characteristic of popular
imagination. The status of Saint George as a hero, protector, miracle worker and
a martyr was reinforced among the Balkan Orthodox during the Turkish reign
and transferred to the Metropolitanate of Karlovci in the 18th century.
Key words: Saint George, zograf icon painting, Slavonia, 18th century

1 The paper was written in English by the author.

59
 Unknown zograf, Saint George Slaying the Dragon, around 1740,
church in Gaćište, Slavonia (photo: Ratko Radanović, Banja Luka)

Hristofor Žefarović, Lamentation of Christ,

fresco in Bođani monastery church, 1737 (photo: Branislav Todić, Beograd)
 Saint George Slaying the Dragon on an 18th Century Icon from Slavonia

The most favored miracle of Saint George, the episode with the evil dragon
and the fragile princess, was a very popular subject in Serbian religious art in
the 18th century, especially in the so called zograf painting. Among the Serbs
and other Orthodox living in Habsburg Monarchy under the jurisdiction of the
Metropolitanate of Karlovci, this traditional variant of visual art coexisted with
mainstream and privileged baroque painting. As a form of popular art and, being
closely related to the long-standing Balkan post-Byzantine painting tradition,
it was nevertheless an open medium, actively communicating and interacting
with the baroque officialis (Timotijević 1996, 131-134). The stylistic and themat-
ic characteristics of zograf icons, their decorativeness, often flamboyant colors
and picturesque, but simplified rendering of traditional repertoire of Christian
themes and pieties, suited the needs of the unlearned majority of the Orthodox
rural population through emotional, rather than intellectual connection with the
believers (Timotijević 1996, 132). The icon of Saint George Slaying the Dragon
(fig. 1) by an unknown zograf painter, discovered recently in the parish church
in Gaćište a village in central Slavonia (Kučeković 2015, 85-88), has all of the
above characteristics and presents almost an ideal case study for understanding
the interesting mixture of traditional and popular in the Serbian visual culture of
the 18th century.
There are few reliable clues about the origins of this icon, which is housed
in a modern church built after the Second World War. It seems to be the sole vi-
sual testimony of the early 18th century history of the Orthodox parish in Gaćište.
As archival sources show, the Orthodox locus in the village dates from the peri-
od of Turkish conquest of Slavonia and subsequent settlement of the Orthodox
population in the second half of the 16th century, later periodically repopulated
by migrations from central Bosnia. The first firm record of a wooden Orthodox
church in Gaćište dates from 1748 when it was dedicated to Saint George. A new
masonry church was built after 1770. During much later refurbishment, begun
around 1880, the parishioners decided to acquire a new painted iconostasis – on
that occasion, only the “ancient” despotic icons were kept as prized testimonies
of confessional continuity (Kučeković 2015, 87-88). The outlined circumstan-
cial evidence may suggest that the icon of Saint George Slaying the Dragon
could be the only surviving of those old despotic icons from the 18th century
church. Though quite rare in reformed baroque painting in the Metropolitanate
of Karlovci, the illustration of this miracle of Saint George on despotic icons on
iconostases painted by zograf masters in the first half of the 18th century is not
uncommon (Davidov 1973, 156, 159). The popularity of the subject is also tes-
tified by its frequent appearance on portable zograf icons and engravings (Stošić

61
Aleksandra Kučeković

2006, 166; Davidov 1978, 247, 337, 348) often donated to certain churches or
commissioned by private individuals.
The story about Saint George’s miraculous victory over the demonic beast
on the icon from Gaćište is depicted as a combination of episodes from his vita
and accounts of his miracles (Popović 1973, 351-352, 371-374). The mounted
warrior saint tramples the dragon beneath his horse’s stomping hooves, thrusting
his lance through the throat of the beast, while in the back, the awestruck prin-
cess witnesses the event with hands crossed on her chest. Her father, the tsar, and
mother the tsarina are also depicted, alongside a group of astonished inhabitants
of the city, on top of a high defensive tower. This part of the composition follows
the accounts of the miracle, but with emphasis shifted from the original story in
which Saint George kills the dragon only after the princess leads it, already de-
feated, inside the city (Popović 1973, 373), to the depiction of the saint’s heroic
act in front of the spectators. This iconographic scheme, as elaborated further in
the text, was already a long-standing and well-established model in post-Byzan-
tine tradition. In the upper section of the icon the hand of God appears from the
clouds blessing the saint and an angel, also carried by a group of clouds, places
the heavenly crown on the saint’s head. This part of the story can be found in
Saint George’s vita accounts of his martyrdom on a wheel ordered by Diocletian,
when an angel of God appears saving the saint and the voice thunders from the
heavens – Do not fear George, I am with you … (Popović 1973, 352). This text
is written in Cirilyc on the ray of light descending from the hand of God and con-
tinued with the angel’s healing and blessing words – Rejoiceth..! also appearing
in some versions of Saint George vita texts (Života 1911, 9). An interesting and
quite unique feature for contemporary zograf painting is the text of the konda-
kion dedicated to Saint George, sung in the morning service on his feast day
(Nikolajević 1984, 142; Mirković 1961, 239-240), written in Cyrilic in the upper
right corner of the Gaćište icon.2 The addition of this liturgical hymn contributes
to the icon’s festive aura and may represent another indicator of its former status
as a despotic icon.
The visual iconography of Saint George, one of the most popular from the
first echelon (Walter 2003, 41-44) of warrior saints, developed gradually in the
Eastern Christian sphere. Modern scholarly approach to his cult assessed the ma-

2 God raised you as his own gardener, O George/ for you have gathered for yourself the sheaves of
virtue./ Having sown in tears, you now reap with joy;/ You shed your blood in combat and won Christ
as your crown./ Through your intercessions, forgiveness of sins is granted to all (Orthodoxwiki 2015).
The original text on the icon is written in Church Slavonic. Judging by the orthography and graphic
character of the kondakion text, alongside the decorative outlining of the cartouche, it can be assumed
that the icon and the text are contemporaneous.

62
 Saint George Slaying the Dragon on an 18th Century Icon from Slavonia

jor characteristics of this development.3 Although extremely popular and widely

celebrated, the historical George from Cappadocia is still a very illusive charac-
ter (Walter 1995, 269; Walter 2003, 109). The latter might have opened the path
for early and prolific incorporation of distinct features of other warrior saints into
the cult of Saint George, but also the assimilation of characteristics of pre-exist-
ing cultic practices and folklore of the regions where the strong devotion to Saint
George took root (Novaković 1880, 133-143; Atanasov 2001, 226-228), initiat-
ing the production of various apocryphal text that might have influenced the rich
and varied visual iconography of the saint’s life and posthumous miracles (Steva-
nović 2012, 393-404; Stevanović 2015, 31-47). His primary devotional charac-
teristic as a Christian martyr was celebrated in many painted cycles during the
medieval and post-Byzantine periods (Atanasov 2001, 274-313; Popović 2003,
95-110; Walter 2003, 134-138). The warrior image, though, was fortified when
Saint George’s military, rather than martyr status was acknowledged in Byzan-
tine imperial iconography, later adopted by analogue ideologies in the sphere of
Byzantine influence (Walter 2003, 131-132; Katsaros 2013, 505-515). Serbian
medieval ruling elites appropriated this facet of the saint’s cult, as witnessed by
important royal and noble monastic endowments from the 12th to 14th centuries
(Walter 1989a, 347-358; Marković 1995b, 600-607; Popović 1995, 451-470).
The sense of impending doom among the Balkan Orthodox provoked by Otto-
man threat after the battle of Chernomen (1371), reinforced the trust in the help
of holy warriors (Marković 1995a, 192-197). The situation and accents of the
cult of Saint George changed to a certain extent in the following period of Turk-
ish rule in the Balkans, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, when devotion
to him was strengthened even more (Popović 2003, 97). For Serbian Orthodox
population under the Ottomans, Saint George becomes one of the most invoked
among the so-called fast-helping saints (Ševo 1999, 119), those who respond to
the prayers of the needy (Novaković 1880, 134).4 Although almost never por-
trayed as a martyr in Serbian Orthodox churches of the period, but exclusively as
a standing warrior in full military attire (Petković 1965, 67-68), his martyrdom
was never far out of sight, as witnessed by the nearly standard epithet “The Great
Martyr” found on many of the preserved icons and wall-painting portraits, as is
also the case on the Gaćište icon.
The iconographical theme of Saint George Slaying the Dragon is very old
(Walter 1989b, 664-665), but the combination of this principal scheme with
3 Comprehensive bibliographies on the subject have been put together by several authors; we refer
to the ones we found most useful in our research (Marković 1995b, 568-599; Walter 2003, 109-144).
4 The popular belief in Saint George as the patron of farmers and cattle owners was widespread
among the Balkan Orthodox during the period of Turkish rule and was especially important in a rural
society (Petković 1965, 68)

63
Aleksandra Kučeković

the saving of the princess became widespread, as it appears, from the eleventh
century onwards (Atanasov 2001, 225- 242; Walter 2003, 128-129, 140-142).
In post-Byzantine period, its standard rendering stemmed from the solutions
achieved in Cretan icon painting from the 15th to the 17th century. From the pro-
totype model created by painter Angelos Akotantos in the 15th century (Vassilaki
2009, 137-152), Saint George emerges on the forefronts of icons as a muscular
action hero on an equally muscular and forceful steed, with the fluttering scar-
let cloak, signifying both his martyrdom and victory over evil (Alpatov 1956,
306). The famous Cretan master reached an omnipotent idealized synthesis of
older hieratic Byzantine representations of Saint George on horseback with more
naturalistic variations of early Renaissance painters, such as Paolo Veneziano
(Vassilaki 2009, 141-142). Retaining consistently this successful visual formula,
Cretan painting of the period also produced icons of Saint George Slaying the
Dragon combined with the princess episode in the background, reaching espe-
cially flamboyant, profuse with Western influences and thematically rich variants
in the work, as maybe the most striking, of painter Georgios Klontzas in the 16th
century (Barboudakis 1993, 399, 413-414). It seems that Cretan models for ico-
nography of Saint George Slaying the Dragon became almost universal in the
Balkan post-Byzantine world, adopted by regional “schools” of painting which,
in turn, enriched it with many specific details (Rakić 2012, 68-69; Matić 2017,
136). The multilayered narration of visual iconography was paralleled by various
interpolations in manuscripts of the time describing the miracle of Saint George
and the dragon, with notable folkloric influences, especially in the South Slavic
domain (Stojkova 2000, 112-124).
The zograf painters of the 18th century in the Metropolitanate of Karlovci in-
herited the plethora of iconographic variants of their post-Byzantine background;
many of them migrated to the area from the south of Balkans in the first half of
the century, thus carrying a direct connection to visual models of their native
regions (Davidov 1978, 106). The icon from Gaćište, partly because of the rea-
sons described at the beginning of this text, but mostly because of its particular
stylistic features, may seem like an artifact completely strange in the surround-
ing that was increasingly trying to accept the baroque visual culture (Kučeković
2014, 9, 43-67). The oddness becomes less when some suppositions about the
authorship of the icon are cross-referenced with known social and confessional
circumstances of the period in Slavonia. To an experienced eye, the characteristic
of the figure of Saint George on the Gaćište icon, especially quite striking facial
features, is immediately associated with the recognizable style of the famous
“Illyrian Rascian common zograf” Hristofor Žefarović (Davidov 1978, 105-125;

64
 Saint George Slaying the Dragon on an 18th Century Icon from Slavonia

Todić 2013, 2, 221-232). Although known in Serbian art of the first half of the
18th century mostly as a talented engraver who, employed by the highest ranks
in Serbian Orthodox church, had an important role in contemporary reformatory
processes of the Serbian cultural and religious habitus in the Habsburg Monar-
chy (Davidov 1978, 127-157), his painted legacy reveals best his unique figural
style. Žefarović migrated to the Habsburg Monarchy from his native Dojran in
Macedonia some time before 1740 (Todić 2013, 2, 221-222), coming out as a
fully trained artist and painting his largest preserved fresco corpus in the church
of Bođani monastery in Bačka (Todić 2013, 2, 222, 227-228).5 The facial features
of the rich scope of characters Žefarovic created in Bođani (fig. 2) provide vivid
analogies with Saint George on the Gaćište icon. Even closer similarities can
be observed with the despotic icons on the iconostasis in the church in Branjina
village in Baranja region, attributed to Žefarović and/or his workshop (fig. 3)
(Vasić 1971, 145-147; Šelmić 2003, 326-327). However, direct authorship of the
Gaćište icon to Žefarović can not be claimed and there is no evidence that he ever
travelled that far westwards in Slavonia and Croatia. In the absence of any other
solid ground, apart from quite striking stylistic resemblances, only speculations
about the possible presence of one or more of his apprentices or associates in
Slavonia in the mid-18th century can be proposed (Kučeković 2015, 88).
Many features of the Gaćište icon show how its unknown painter adapted to
the specific preferences of the Orthodox community he created it for. As predom-
inantly rural in nature and surrounded by the Catholic world, the Orthodox soci-
ety and its Church in Slavonia and Northern Croatia in the 18th century harbored
locally many prolonged traditional cultural inclinations (Kučeković 2014, 241-
247, 274-284). The significant social influence of wealthy Orthodox merchants
from the south of Balkans, many of them ethnic Aromanians and Greeks, who
travelled or permanently settled and did business in trading towns of the region,
also brought about transposition of their religious customs and cultural prefer-
ences (Davidov 1990, 165-176). The icon from Gaćište could be considered as
one example of such transpositions, as all of its characteristics, both iconograph-
ical and stylistic, could be found in the visual tradition of the Ohrid archbishopric
of the previous period - the artistic sphere that produced Žefarović and painters
with similar styles.6 The ethnic origins of zograf painters migrating from afore-
5 Speculations about places of his artistic training still vary considerably, ranging from regional cen-
ters as Thessaloniki, Ohrid, Moschopolis, Mount Athos or Ionian islands of Zakynthos or Corfu, with
presumed apprenticeships with prominent masters such as David of Selenica or Panayotis Doxaras
(Moutafov 2001, 154-155; Todić 2013, 2, 221).
6 The area of this flourishing variant of post-Byzantine painting in the south of Balkans in the 17th and
18th centuries is differently named by scholars as, for example, the Ohrid-Moschopolis cultural circle
(Grozdanov 2016, 229-230) or area of Epirus and Western Macedonia (Moutafov 2001, 93-101). Ethnic

65
Aleksandra Kučeković

mentioned regions, or ones trained by them in the Habsburg lands, played no

significant role in their engagements – their Orthodoxy was their primary identi-
fication code; they worked for Serbian, Greek and/or Greek speaking Aromanian
commissioners alike, and used the corresponding languages and orthographies,
or sometimes even both at the same time (Davidov 1990, 165; Šelmić 2003, 327-
328; Grozdanov 2016, 229). The painter of the Gaćište icon might have been of
non-Slavic ethnicity but nevertheless skilfully using the Church Slavonic lan-
guage and the Cyrillic script.

Hristofor Žefarović (attributed), Christ on the Throne, around 1740,

despotic icon in church in Branjina, Baranja
(photo: Dragan Damjanović, Zagreb)

origins of Žefarović himself are still the subject of discussion among scholars (Todić 2013, 2, 221).

66
 Saint George Slaying the Dragon on an 18th Century Icon from Slavonia

His model for the variant of the theme of Saint George Slaying the Drag-
on painted on the Gaćište icon is derived from aforementioned Cretan classics,
strongly influential in the Ohrid archbishopric, but also in the region of Greek
Ionian islands that might have been the place of Žefarović’s artistic training
(Moutafov 2001, 153-155). The proof of the presence of this template in Že-
farović’s circle, although no icons or engravings signed by him featuring this par-
ticular subject are preserved, can be found on the engraving Saint George Slaying
the Dragon with Vita Scenes made in Vienna around 1748 (fig. 4), attributed to
his namesake and probably a relative and associate Georgije Žefarović (Davidov
1978, 222-223, 348; Todić 2013, 1, 130-131). In the cartouche below the central
panel of this engraved vita icon, with the figure of Saint George on horseback
and the princess episode in the background, the troparion to Saint George is
engraved, as yet another connecting feature with the Gaćište icon which bears
the text of the kondakion – the other hymn from the same liturgical set for the
Feast of Saint George. However, the difference between artistic renderings of the
two works is quite significant, although they are almost contemporaneous, or the
Gaćište icon being made slightly earlier then the engraving attributed to Georgije
Žefarović. Alongside disparate iconographical features, mainly the pose of the
saint’s head, clothing and the princess fleeing, which suggest different, but still
very much related paragons, the engraver’s approach is much more naturalistic
and conceptually closer to Western art, in accordance with his presumed short Vi-
ennese career (Davidov 1978, 223) and probably urban identity of his unknown
commissioner/s. On the other hand, the comparable figural naiveté, strong colors
and decorative details of the Gaćište icon could be explained by the general trend
of zograf painters adapting to more traditional and popular tastes of their rural
provincial clientele.
The exact model, engraved or other, for the Gaćište icon in all its features
could not be precisely identified; the fact which might point to its uniqueness,
but surely yet another indicator of richness and variety of details, and indeed
their imaginative selection and free combination, that could be incorporated by
zograf painters into the subject of Saint George Slaying the dragon. The icon
from Gaćište is comprised as an apotheosis of the victorious saint (Alpatov 1956,
307), receiving the grace of God in the decisive moment of his battle. The earlier
variants rooted in Byzantine tradition tended to show the saint already victori-
ous over the conquered beast, with the princess leading it pacified on the string
(Todić 1993, 113-115). Increased influences exerted upon the Eastern Orthodox
world by Western baroque religious practices that promoted concepts of active
piety and saints as examples of everlasting heroic deeds of faith, resulted in the

67
Aleksandra Kučeković

shifting of old iconographical accents of warrior saints towards more pronounced

action-hero schemes (Timotijević 1996, 361, 367-368). Saint George slaying the
dragon becomes almost universally depicted in the middle of the battle with the
beast, with the princess as an active and often rhetorically gesticulating partici-
pant. Such concepts went hand in hand with the popular imagination associated
with Saint George, reflected also in folk literature (Novaković 150-163). The
special place in the front plane of icons was always left for the monster itself as
an epitome of evil, acquiring ever more ominous characteristics derived from
variable zoomorphological roots (Bejenaru and Bacumenco 2004, 361-373). The
painter of the Gaćište icon shows it as a true winged dragon, paying much atten-
tion to details of its twisted body in the death rattle, with flows of blood gushing
from its serrated jaws. The traditional wreath of God’s glory bestowed upon the
saint by an angel is replaced by a crown in Western fashion, richly decorated with
pearls, as well as the saint’s halo. The influence of the baroque ornamental rep-
ertoire can be seen in the saint’s black and lavishly gilded attire and saddle cloth.
The gestures of the princess, the figures on the city walls and those of God and
His angel on the top constitute the rich rhetorical fabric of the image, emphasize
its allegorical potential and strongly engage the spectator.
Returning shortly to the question of the iconographical model for the
Gaćište icon, we incline towards looking for its source in the rich corpus of
engravings created by the artistic sphere from which Hristofor Žefarović origi-
nated. The role of engravings of both Eastern and Western provenance as icono-
graphical templates in his artistic formation and later career is quite well stud-
ied (Timotijević 1996, 72-77; Moutafov 2001, 76-77). Engravings with Saint
George Slaying the Dragon and Saving the Princess from the 17th and 18th cen-
turies, mainly from Mount Athos, feature many details present on the Gaćište
icon (Papastratos 1990, 203-206). Some interesting observations can be made
by studying engravings from this circle with representations of yet another vari-
ant of Saint George Slaying the Dragon – the one that, alongside the princess
episode in the background, includes the figure of a youth carried by the saint on
the horse behind him (Papastratos 1990, 207-213, 478-479). This iconographical
scheme, with still varied interpretations concerning the identity of the young boy
(Grotowski 2003, 27-77), achieved great popularity in Bulgarian icon painting
of the period, where it was infused with many folkloric elements (Božkov 1984,
243-247; Paskaleva 1987, 99, 163, 183). Although mainly appearing in the south
of Balkans, this variant is also recorded in zograf painting in the Metropolitanate
of Karlovci (Stošić 2006, 163; Todić 2013, 2, 56-57). Because of the richness
of decorative and narrative details appearing on icons and engravings depicting

68
 Saint George Slaying the Dragon on an 18th Century Icon from Slavonia

this iconographical variant, we propose its inclusion into the imagined scope of
visual paragons that might have been at the disposal of the Gaćište icon painter.

Georgije Žefarović (attributed), Saint George with Vita Scenes, colored engraving,
around 1748 (photo: Galerija Matice srpske, Novi Sad)

The overall concept and specific details of the Gaćište icon represent an
expression of a particular pictorial poetics striving to span the gap between
post-Byzantine and mid- European visual traditions. It was created for the com-
munity that lived quite estranged by its confessional distinction and found solace
in traditional visual expressions of the Orthodox faith. Nevertheless, it displays
obvious influences of Western pictorial concepts which were exerted upon reli-
gious art of the entire Balkan region of the period (Moutafov 2001, 5-12, 65-87).
It was painted by a skilled and talented master and might be considered among
zograf icons of higher quality. Lack of data prevents its precise dating, but the
1740s could be proposed as probable time of its creation. Unfortunately, its al-
most total stylistic uniqueness and isolation among preserved zograf icons from
Slavonia hinders any further non-speculative conclusions and makes it almost an
exotic testimony to once flourishing cross-cultural connections.

69
Aleksandra Kučeković

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Photo captions:

Fig. 1. Unknown zograf, Saint George Slaying the Dragon, around 1740,
church in Gaćište, Slavonia (photo: Ratko Radanović, Banja Luka)
Fig. 2. Hristofor Žefarović, Lamentation of Christ, fresco in Bođani mon-
astery church, 1737 (photo: Branislav Todić, Beograd)
Fig. 3. Hristofor Žefarović (attributed), Christ on the Throne, around 1740,
despotic icon in church in Branjina, Baranja (photo: Dragan Damjanović, Za-
greb)
Fig. 4. Georgije Žefarović (attributed), Saint George with Vita Scenes, col-
ored engraving, around 1748 (photo: Galerija Matice srpske, Novi Sad)

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Aleksandra Kučeković

Александра Кучековић

Свети Георгије убија аждају на икони

из Славоније из 18. века – традиционална
иконографија и популарна побожност

У раду је представљена икона из Славоније, датована у прву половину

18. столећа, са представом најпопуларнијег чуда Светог Георгија – убијања
змаја и спасавања принцезе. Икона представља занимљиву целину како с
аспекта иконографије и стилских карактеристика сликарства, тако и могућег
порекла сликара. Анализа стила анонимног мајстора указује на могућност
да се радило о блиском ученику и/или сараднику чувеног Христофора
Жефаровића, који је у Карловачку митрополију мигрирао из Македоније
30-их година 18. века. Његов специфичан сликарски стил припадао је
такозваном зографском сликарству у српској уметности 18. столећа, које
се формирало на додиру поствизантијске традиције и европског барока и
формирало дистинктиван формат популарне уметности. Икона о којој је реч
указује на миграцијске досеге сликара са југа Балкана у раном 18. столећу
и њихово учешће у стварању специфичних облика популарне визуелне
културе у славонским заједницама Славоније и Хрватске. Представа на којој
тријумфујући светитељ на пропетом коњу савладава звер била је етаблирана
у византијској и пост-византијској традицији, али се у каснијим вековима
третирала са све наглашенијом декоративношћу и уз додавање маштовитих
илустративних детаља карактеристичних за популарну имагинацију.
Статус Светог Георгија као хероја, заштитника и мученика оснажен је међу
православнима на Балкану у периоду турске владавине и као такав пренет
је у религиозну и визуелну културу Карловачке митрополије 18. века.
Кључне речи: Свети Георгије, иконопис 18. века, зографско сликарство
18. века, популарна побожност, Славонија

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