The town leaders eventually decided to begin sacrificing two sheep per day to the beast, hoping it would satisfy his taste for blood and leave the human population in peace. However, this arrangement did not placate the dragon for long and soon the locals were making human sacrifices to the dragon; all of the town's young people were entered into a grotesque lottery of sorts, and every day one would be chosen to be sacrificed. Johns, Jeremy (2017), Bacile, Rosa (ed.), "Muslim Artists and Christian Moels in the Painted Ceilings of the Cappella Palatina", Romanesque and the Mediterranean, Routledge, ISBN 9781351191050 , note 96

Donatello carved his statue of St. George for the guild of armorers and swordmakers in Florence. Like the statue of St. Mark, the statue of St. George was destined for the guild’s niche in the building of Orsanmichele. Because the guild was of average size, it could only afford a statue of marble, rather than of bronze.

Donatello's Orsanmichele second of fourteen statues of protectors of the arts of Florence is not only a treasure but also a gem that has been significant in art over the years.

Warner-Johnson, Tim, and Jeremy Howard, eds. Colnaghi: Past, Present and Future: An Anthology. London, 2016: 64-65, color plate 9. The Florentine people identified overwhelmingly with their Roman heritage and the heroes and leaders that Rome produced. Thus, a statue honoring that heritage would have been both timely and appropriate.

The earliest certain example of the "detailed" form may be a fresco from Pavnisi (dated c. 1160), although the examples from Adishi, Bochorma and Ikvi may be slightly earlier. [25] Considering the fact that the present palace in Republic Street was given to the diocese by the Bondì aristocratic family only in 1880, the document must be referring to the previous one in the Sqaq tal-Giżimin abutting from Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia Street, a stone’s throw away from St George’s basilica. In 1935 Stanley Holloway recorded a humorous retelling of the tale as St. George and the Dragon written by Weston and Lee. Shapley, Fern Rusk. Later Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Six in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 14, color repro. Graf, Arturo, ed. (1878), Auberon (I complementi della Chanson d'Huon de Bordeaux I), Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari (10) (in Italian), Halle: M. Niemeyer, p.261were collected in the "Legenda Aurea" in the thirteenth century. Donatello took these tales into account and created a likeness of St. George that personified him as confident and capable. Since 1954, the procession has been held on the third Sunday of July. Photo: St George’s parish archives/Daniel Cilia

Haskell, Francis. The King's Pictures: The Formation and Dispersal of the Collections of Charles I and His Courtiers. Edited by Karen Serres. New Haven and London, 2013: 47, fig. 57, 181 n. 16, 227. the patron saint of the armourer's guild and was known as military figure, as well as a hero in the Holy Land, making him a fitting subject. A popular tale involving the hero The initial spruce-up was reportedly conducted by a local handicrafts teacher untrained in the art of restoration. According to a statement by ACRE, Spain’s national organization of professional art restorers, the artist applied several layers of plaster, repainted the figure, and sanded its surface, effectively erasing the entirety of its “historical footprint.” The original artist had used a unique polychrome technique. According to London’s National Gallery, Spanish sculptors of the 16th and 17th centuries carved their statues and covered them in white gesso but were prohibited from actually painting the figurines, which were later gilded and refined by specially trained artisans.

Like all of Donatello's works and the majority of biographical information about Donatello himself, there is very little information regarding how the St. George was initially received. However, it is known that the statue occupied its niche in the Orsanmichele for many years, and surely it would not have if it were not an honored and highly prized piece of art. Hodge, Susie. Raphael: His Life and Works in 500 Images. Wigston, Leicestershire, 2013: 137, color figs. Mulazzani, Germano. "Raphael and Venice: Giovanni Bellini, Dürer, and Bosch." Studies in the History of Art 17 (1986): 149-153, repro.

St. George stands brandishing a mighty shield and is seemingly aware of danger coming from every direction. Donatello placed the weight of the statue evenly upon both legs but left the Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 27, repro. MacDermott, Mercia (1998). Bulgarian Folk Customs. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. pp.64–66. ISBN 978-1-8530-2485-6. The statue, which was commissioned as a thanksgiving for the saint’s protection during the Asiatic cholera of June 1837, was brought out for processions on various occasions and for varied reasons.Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 28. Walter, Christopher (2003), The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition, Abingdon: Routledge . See also Joseph Eddy Fontenrose, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins (1959), p. 518 (fn 8).