Paolo Uccello, St. George and the Dragon by Andy Warhol is a portfolio of four screenprints published in 1984. Each print presents the same tightly cropped section of Paolo Uccello’s Renaissance painting, but in dramatically different color combinations. Warhol isolates the young woman and the dragon’s wing, replacing the original palette with vivid reds, electric blues, neon greens, and deep blacks. The bold color shifts transform the medieval scene into a striking Pop composition while preserving the elegant contours of Uccello’s drawing.
A Renaissance Master Reimagined
Rather than reproducing the entire painting, Warhol crops away its central action. He removes the hero almost entirely and focuses instead on the encounter between the maiden and the beast. As a result, the narrative becomes quieter and more ambiguous. The dramatic rescue gives way to a moment of tension, inviting viewers to linger on gesture, expression, and form instead of the story’s conclusion.
This approach reflects Warhol’s broader Pop Art practice. Throughout his career, he enlarged, isolated, and repeated familiar images until they acquired new meanings. Here, he applies the same method to a Renaissance masterpiece. Consequently, color becomes the primary vehicle of interpretation. Each variation creates a different emotional atmosphere while leaving the composition itself almost unchanged.
Warhol’s Details of Renaissance Paintings
The portfolio belongs to Warhol’s Details of Renaissance Paintings series, in which he revisited works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Paolo Uccello. Instead of treating these paintings as untouchable masterpieces, Warhol approached them much like his portraits of celebrities or everyday consumer products. He cropped them, magnified individual details, and reintroduced them through the language of screenprinting and bold synthetic color.
St. George and the Dragon In Warhol’s Larger Body of Work
Although the portfolio draws on fifteenth-century art, its concerns are unmistakably Warhol’s. The repeated composition demonstrates how dramatically color alone can alter mood and meaning. Moreover, the omission of the heroic saint shifts attention toward the relationship between the woman and the dragon, allowing the viewer to interpret the image without its original religious framework. Today, collectors value the portfolio for its inventive dialogue between Renaissance painting and Pop Art, demonstrating Warhol’s remarkable ability to bridge centuries of visual culture.
Photo credit: Artwork that inspired Warhol by Paolo Uccello titled St. George and the Dragon, c. 1470. Courtesy of the National Gallery, London.
