Nicholas, St. with selected saints
Iconography: Boris, St. Prince Martyr (baptized as Roman), Gleb, St. Prince Martyr (baptized as David), Florus, St., Laurus, St., Selected saints, Nicholas (lap), Eudokia, Holy Martyress
Date: XIII century. The end of the 12th - the beginning of the 13th c.
Iconographic school/art center: Novgorod school
Origin: From the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Monastery in Moscow. According to legend, the icon was brought to the monastery by Ivan the Terrible from Novgorod.
Material: Wood, tempera
Dimensions: height 145 cm, width 94 cm
St. Nicholas is represented in an erect frontal pose, half-length, blessing with his right hand; in his right hand covered with a phelonion and an omophorion he holds a closed gospel book. In the upper margin, in the center, is the Ethimasia (the Prepared Throne).
On either side of the Ethimasia are half-length depictions of the healers Cosmas and Damian. On side borders the saints are portrayed full-length, in three rows, by pairs. In the upper part of the icon are princes Boris (left) and Gleb (right). In their right hands they hold martyr’s crosses, in the left hands they hold up the swords in sheaths tangled with a baldric. In the middle of side borders are the martyrs Florus (left) and Laurus (right). In the bottom stand saint martyrs. Eudokia (left) and Domna (?) (right). In the bottom margin are the shoulder-length figures of Sts. Paraskeva (left?) and Photinia (right).
Inv. № 12862. © The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Bibliography:
Государственная Третьяковская Галерея. Каталог собрания. Древнерусское искусство X — начала XV века. Том I. №9.
General view