EWALD MATARÉ 1887 Aachen – 1965 Büderich MONUMENTAL RELIEF ‘ST. GEORGE’ (1956/57) Steel, chased, motif of St. George slaying the dragon. D. ca. 145 cm, at the spear points D. ca. 165 cm. Inscribed ‘Fortiter in re suaviter in modo’ on the upper rim. In his sculptural work Ewald Mataré is especially known for the depiction of animal figures, for which he found his own pictorial language. Detached from individual characteristics, it is the original traits that Mataré skilfully reproduces in reduced forms, thus lending the depictions a sublime aura. Mataré’s preoccupation with Christian motifs runs parallel to his depictions of animals throughout his oeuvre. In this relief, which appeared on the art market for the first time, Mataré devotes himself to the depiction of St. George, who has been worked out in great detail as the dragon slayer. The metal relief was specially commissioned from Mataré in 1956 and has remained in a corporate collection in North Rhine-Westphalia ever since. Mataré chose this representation as early as 1950 for the much smaller bronze casting of a plaque whose whereabouts are unknown (cf. Schilling 341, 341a). In contrast to the bronze casting and his plaster model of 1950, the lance of St. George in the monumental relief of 1956/57 pierces its circular form in the upper and lower areas, lending the depiction a convincing dynamism in addition to its sculptural elaboration. After the Second World War, Mataré took over a sculpture class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1946, where he worked as a professor until his retirement in 1957. In 1947 Mataré received numerous public, partly ecclesiastical commissions, among them the bronze doors for the south portal of the Cologne Cathedral, the west window of the Aachen Cathedral, the portals of the World Peace Church in Hiroshima and the Salzburg Cathedral portal. Bronzetüren für das Südportal des Kölner Döms, das Westfenster des Aachener Doms, die Literature: Schilling 463; Anonymous, in: ‘Die Furche’, Salzburg, 1958, No. 32 Fig. Provenance: Corporate collection of North Rhine-Westphalia.