Raphael Sanzio: Saint George and the Dragon, 1506 (Magna Opera Replica™)

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(Official list price: €4990)

Magna Opera Replica™

The museum emotion of an original masterpiece, to be experienced in your home in every detail: material surface, artisanal finishing and hand-crafted Renaissance frame.

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The work is currently in production and will be available soon.
The image shown is a digital preview. The physical version will be updated as soon as it is completed and photographed.
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🖼️ Description of the work

Saint George and the Dragon is one of Raphael's most intense early masterpieces, painted around 1505–1506 during his stay in Florence. Despite its small size, this work contains an extraordinary narrative and symbolic force: it depicts the holy knight while, on the back of a white steed, he pierces a dragon at his feet with his lance.

The scene is built on dynamic but harmonious diagonals: the tension between movement and composure is perfectly balanced by the elegant position of the rearing horse, the solemn calm of Saint George's gaze and the luminous sweetness of the princess kneeling in prayer in the background. Her ruby ​​red dress and transparent veil accentuate the spiritual delicacy of the scene, while the atmosphere remains serene and suspended, despite the action.

The colors are vivid and refined: cobalt blue for the saint's cloak, silvery white for the horse, mint green for the dragon's head. The landscape is dominated by rolling Umbrian hills, two orange towers and a bright blue sky, in a perfect fusion between reality and idealization. Precious details, such as the garter with the inscription "HONI" and the golden name "RAPHELLO" on the horse's collar, reveal the close connection between the work and the nomination of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro as Knight of the Order of the Garter by King Henry VII of England.

Stylistically, the painting blends Peruginesque grace with Leonardesque energy, testifying to the full maturation of the young Raphael, capable of expressing strength, beauty and measure together. The work continues to enchant even today with its formal purity and its universal message of heroism and virtue. A small painting, but an ideal monument of Renaissance humanism.

🛠️ Technique: Magna Opera Replica™

This 1:1 scale material museum replica is the result of an exclusive process that combines cutting-edge printing technologies and manual finishing.

A proprietary technology recreates the surface of the original painting, faithfully restoring the pictorial material and the gestures of Raphael's brush strokes.

The finishes are handmade with professional restoration materials and using traditional techniques by craftsmen expert in the knowledge of gilding and carpentry handed down from generation to generation over the centuries .

Every detail is designed to evoke the deep emotion one feels in front of the original, recreating the visual and material experience of the work in its most authentic form.

🖌️ The Renaissance style frame
The frame, entirely hand-made, faithfully reproduces the style of the 16th century Sienese boxes , among the most elegant forms of the Italian Renaissance tradition.

In raw wood with reinforced corners, it is prepared with 4 coats of chalk and 3 coats of natural bole, on which the gold leaf is applied in gouache, spread manually. The gilding is burnished with agate stone, patinated with tempera and finished with wax and shellac.

Each side and each corner is enriched with hand-painted decorative friezes , giving the whole a handcrafted character that makes each frame a unique work of art.

🪵 Support Description

The support of this work is a wooden board made by expert Italian craftsmen specialized in the production of pictorial bases for fine arts, according to traditional methods inspired by the Renaissance school.

Solid lime wood is used or, more frequently, high-quality multilayer poplar , a light and stable material, ideal for ensuring the flatness of the support even on large formats. Poplar was widely used by Raphael himself, and represents a philological choice consistent with his era.

Each board is perfectly edged, hand sanded on all sides and free from imperfections , so that it is elegant even in profile.
The preparation follows the traditional method based on natural rabbit glue applied hot, which penetrates the wood protecting it and ensuring the adhesion of the subsequent layers.

This is followed by up to 10 coats of white chalk , applied manually with a brush and spatula , in alternation, to obtain a compact, smooth but at the same time material surface, ideal for giving the same physical intensity to the touch as the ancient painted panels.

Each layer is left to dry naturally before the next application, in a process that requires patience, experience and slow timing, exactly as it happened in the workshops of the Renaissance.

The result is a noble and durable support, which combines aesthetics, tradition and technical stability, offering a precious and authentic basis for the artistic replica.

📚 Raphael

Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520) is one of the greatest masters of the Italian Renaissance, universally celebrated for the harmony, grace and formal perfection of his works.
With extraordinary visual and intellectual sensitivity, he was able to blend the expressive sweetness of Leonardo and the plastic power of Michelangelo in a unique, balanced and timeless style.

His painting supremely embodies the Renaissance ideal of beauty : a beauty founded on proportion, light, balance and spirituality.
At a time when the concept of beauty was being discussed by philosophers, architects and men of letters in Florence and Rome, Raphael was able to give visible form to that ideal , elevating it to a universal model.

From portraits to Madonnas, from Vatican frescoes to altarpieces, each of his creations reflects this principle: beauty as a manifestation of inner harmony and as a reflection of the divine order .

Considered since the sixteenth century a perfect and unattainable example , Raphael has remained for centuries the absolute measure of "ideal beauty" in painting. No artist, before or after, has managed to equal his grace, balance and depth, making him the unsurpassed model for generations of artists.

🔢 Limited Edition and Size

This work has a limited edition of 999 copies and each is hand-finished , making each replica a unique piece.
Each copy is numbered and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity .

The dimensions without frame are 21.7 × 28.5 cm ( 8.5 × 11.2 in )
The dimensions with frame are 46.2 × 53 cm ( 18.2 × 20.9 in )

💎 Affordable cultural luxury

MAGNA OPERA was born with a clear objective: to make accessible priceless masterpieces , kept in museums or sold at auctions for millions of euros. Thanks to a unique technology and extreme craftsmanship, each replica offers an authentic visual and artistic experience.

A new concept of accessible cultural luxury , where craftsmanship and innovation meet in every detail to evoke the profound emotion felt in front of the original, recreating the visual and material experience of the work in its most authentic form.

🔒 Rights and trademark

Magna Opera Replica™ is a trademark. All rights reserved.

🔗 Discover Raphael's other works in our dedicated collection .

📖 Do you want to know the history and secrets of this work? Read the article dedicated to Saint George and the Dragon .