Description in Icons, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2004, cat. no. 43:
Saint Nicholas with
Scenes from His Life
NMI 272

Wood: Linden (Tilia sp.), egg tempera
on canvas. Panel made of four boards
with two splines inlaid from one side;
back painted black.

PROVENANCE: Antiquariat no 4545
(”Novgoroder Schule, 16. Jahrh.”); Olof
Aschberg 935; Gift of O. Aschberg 1952
EXHIBITIONS: Gothenburg 1970, no 15; Helsinki
1970, no 15; Stockholm 1988, no 15
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dahlbäck 1954, pp 198,199;
Kjellin 1956; pp 266, 274; Lex.d.christl.
Ikonogr. 1968, Bd 8, p 49; Abel 1978:1, fig.
Bjurström 1984, p 196; Abel 1987, cover, pp 4-5;
Abel 1989:1, p 39; Abel 1989:2, pp 13-14;
Abel 1992:3, pp 20-21; Abel 1995, p 112

CONSERVATION: Restored prior to entering
NM: retouches mainly on face of central
figure and on some of the faces of figures on
upper border; NM 1960: remains of old
varnish and overpaintings removed, nail
holes from metal halo round the head of
the central figure stopped, old mend in
central section beneath the Mother of God
primed and stopped, stopping and retouch -
ing of paint losses in the joints, retouching
of paint losses in the face of the central
figure and the rocks in the second tier, left,
back ground in central part, a few of the
small scenes and borders regilded, (B.Titov).
Cracking and paint loss in old damage to
lower border; small traces of origi nal gilding
on the background of the small scenes; smal -
ler inpaintings all over icon

The border scenes represent the follow -
ing episodes, reading horizontally from
left to right.: 1The birth and the miracle
in the bath, 2. The Saint brought
to school, 3. The Saint made a deacon,
4.The Saint ordained into priesthood,
5.The Saint consecrated bishop, 6.The
removal of an evil spirit from the well,
7. The miracle of the ship, 8. Appear -
ing to the emperor Constantine (?) in a
dream, 9. Appearing to the governor
Eulavius (?) in a dream, 10. Rescuing
three generals from execution, 11. Ap -
pearing to three generals in prison,
12. Rescuing Dimitrii from drowning,
13. Delivering Basil from the Saracen
king, 14. The restoration of Basil to his
parents, 15. The Dormition, 16. The
transfer of the remains from Myra to
Bari.1

The clearly linear, graphic element
of artistic expression is characteristic,
not least in the drawing of faces and
landscape, with different colours for
different planes. For a similar treatment
of the landscape, reference can
be made to the well-known Entombment,
originally in the Ostrouchov
Collection and now in the Tretyakov
Gallery, Moscow (inv. no 12041), and
a vita icon of John the Baptist in Arch -
angelsk Museum (inv. no 2124-drz).
In the central picture we may note the
positioning – unique where this motif
is concerned – of the Mother of God to
the left and of Christ to the right.

1 Sevcenko 1983
[slut]