Crucifixion Altarpiece, Right Wing, Outer Face: St George

Saint George was not new to Burgkmair. In 1508 he designed a woodcut of the saint with the princess and the slain dragon, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which owns an impression of it, calls it the earliest known chiaroscuro woodcut. A second block printed a tone of green under the black lines, with the highlights cut away, and the block cutter, Jost de Negker from Antwerp, signed it alongside him. 11 years later George appears here, on the outer face of the right shutter, sharing one domed pavilion with Saint Sigismund on the left shutter, so that the two saints made a single picture whenever the altarpiece was closed. For three centuries they stayed joined to the Crucifixion inside. Soon after 1822 the outer faces were separated from the inner ones, and since then the two saints have hung as panels in their own right.