St George Killing the Dragon, with Scenes from His Life

By 1838 the Ottoman Balkans were deep in what Bulgarians now call the National Revival, a long stretch when new churches went up and old ones were refitted, and the icon workshops in mountain towns like Tryavna could barely keep pace with the orders. This panel follows an old Byzantine format known as a vita icon. In the centre George sits on his horse and drives his lance into the dragon, the moment that saved the king's daughter. Around him runs a border of small framed pictures, the episodes of his life and his long martyrdom, meant to be read scene by scene. It is painted in tempera, partly on canvas laid over wood. Each of those little border scenes carries a short inscription naming the moment, for worshippers who already knew the saint's story by heart.