This dragon grotesque and his twin live on the Casa della Vittoria in Turin, Italy. The building is also sometimes called Casa dei Draghi, presumably because of decorations like this one. (“Drago” is the Italian work for “dragon”.) I’m having trouble finding out more about the building, on account of the fact that my Italian is currently a bit rusty, but I do know that this private home was designed and built by Gottardo Gussoni between 1918 and 1920 in a Neo-Gothic style with copious ornamentation, including many animal decorations (1). I was interested to note that several websites identified the building as Art Nouveau, which I don’t think it technically is. However, I definitely see something of that early-twentieth century stule in the doors and windows shown below- particularly the graceful, wooden trim and the little lizard-shaped handles.
Notes: (1) “Casa della Vittoria”. Italian Wikipedia. Accessed 1/31/2016.
I had a feeling that dragon might be late 19th or early 20th century! It is a lovely creature, but medieval artists usually put all their energy into St. George or St. Margaret and did not try as hard to create an interesting dragon.
It absolutely is. The building was built between 1918 and 1920. It’s not medieval at all, just medieval in style. For what it’s worth, I’ve seen some equally spectacular dragons in medieval paintings and manuscripts, though.
One which I like is painted in the Dominikanerkirche in Bolzen/Bolzano. None of my photos are very good though …