Drago Mouthful by Teddy Hansen

How dragons inspired Italian roof tiles:

All over Tuscany, the roof tiles look like scales. This is because, back in the day when dragons roamed the earth, they would breathe fire, setting thatched roofs alight. People had to adapt and learned from the dragons.

The painting shows a large dragon flying above a town. On the left, the dragon is breathing fire at a small bakery (il forno), igniting it while the tiled house next door remains unharmed. Although the burning of houses was bad for the residents, the smell of the bakery burning was so good that it sparked the idea of the pizza oven.

In the bottom right, you see a happy pizza chef delivering pizzas to the town.

Another positive of dragons is that their wings act like an umbrella spanning over towns like a large tiled roof.

To the right of the dragon is an evolutionary diagram showing the ancient dragons of Tuscany evolving into the everyday gecko.

Mixed media on canvas.

104H x 84W cm

2025