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St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker

Painting
Flat wooden panel backed with tan velvet with painting and silver riza on top with enameling. The riza border features circles with leaf motifs on the end and a Cyrillic caption at the bottom. The focal image features St. Nicholas who is crowned with an enameled cloisonné halo in varying shades of blue, white, red, and green. Nicholas holds one hand in the two finger blessing gesture and a closed book int he other. He is flanked by Christ on the left and Mary on the right. Nicholas's robes feature four leaf clover motifs and his painted face shows a circular white beard and white jaw length hair.

2005.02.097

Panel

Betsy Scheuring Icon Collection

2005.02

Betsy Scheuring

Gift

Gift of Betsy Scheuring

Makers Mark

Bottom left of enamel halo, just to the left of the bottom center under the sleeve of the raised blessing hand.

ИЩ, woman's diadem head 84

Cyrillic alphabet, Russian

ISh (Ivan Shishkin, St. Petersburg 1818-1850)

Icon

Symbol, Religious

Religious Objects

Ceremonial Objects

Category 08: Communication Objects

10-1/2 in

8-3/4 in

1-1/4 in

Spirit Made Tangible: The Scheuring Icon Collection (2006)

Cultural/Historical Context

For the biography of St. Nicholas, please see 2005.02.066. St. Nicholas makes a benediction with one hand and holds a Bible in the other. The riza shows him wearing a flowered dalmatic and a panagia necklace with a sparsely decorated stole. By contrast, the painting depicts him in a plain dalmatic without a necklace and a single cross on the orange stole. The background of the painting remains unadorned while the riza is detailed. The varnish-darkened faces of St. Nicholas, Christ, and the Virgin Mary contrast with their brightly decorated cloisonné haloes, which appear unaffected by age. The cloisonné mitre is colorful and ornate, but the painted mitre is red with a dark red oblong on the front. The western-influenced painting figure style displays softened and realistically rendered features. The clouds and borders of the riza remain silver while the rest of the riza has been gilded, adding an element of interest to the icon not present in the painting underneath.

St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker picture number 1