Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker with Angels and Miracles :
A new image of Saint Nicholas of Myra
in Russian art of the 16 th century
( icon from a private collection in London )
Engelina S . Smirnova Professor of Art History at Moscow State Lomonosov University , and Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Art Studies in Moscow , Russia
Figure 1 . Antique shop in Moscow (?) with icons for sale , 1930s .
In recent years , since the lifting of the tacit ban on the study of many pages in Soviet history , including the circumstances surrounding the sale of artworks from the USSR to the West in the 1920s and early 1930s , Russian publications have frequently reproduced a photograph of a certain antique shop situated either in Moscow ( most likely ) or Leningrad ( Figure 1 ). 1 On it you can see a large number of icons intended for sale . Some of them , but by no means all , have subsequently been located . Thus , the icon of “ Saint George and the Dragon ”, which is clearly visible in the left-hand lower section of the photograph , appeared , after many changes of ownership , in the collection of G . and T . Tatintsian ( USA ) and was displayed at an exhibition of icons from private collections at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art in Moscow in 2009 . 2 The large icon of the “ Last Judgement ” was acquired in 1936 for the George R . Hann collection , 3 entered the collection of Serafim Dritsoulas in Munich , after it was sold in 1980 , and in 2004 was presented by Patriarch Aleksiy II of Moscow and All Russia to the reopened Novodevichy Convent of the Resurrection in Saint Petersburg . 4
On the same photograph at the top , under the archway and next to the “ Trinity ” we can make out an icon of Saint Nicholas , partly obscured by a rod from which the light is hanging . This icon , with its memorable composition , where the small central representation seems to be in a wreath of supplementary figures and scenes , disappeared from the orbit of specialists and its fate remained unknown . 5 Only in 2009 did it resurface
1 See , for example : G . I . Vzdornov , Реставрация и наука : Очерки по истории открытия и изучения древнерусской живописи . ( Мoscow , 2006 ), p . 319 .
2 Pushkin Museum Catalogue , Шедевры русской иконописи XIV-XVI веков из частных собраний , ( Мoscow , 2009 ), Cat . 36 .
3 The George R . Hann Collection . Part 1 : Russian Icons , Ecclesiastical and Secular Works of Art , Embroidery , Silver , Porcelain and Malachite . ( New York : Christie ’ s , 17-18 / 04 / 1980 ), lot . 90 , pp . 188 – 189 .
4 N . V . Pivovarova , “ Икона XVI века « Страшный суд »: дар Воскресенскому Новодевичьему монастырю в Санкт-Петербурге . Вопросы иконографии и стиля ”, Лазаревские чтения . Искусство Византии , Древней Руси , Западной Европы . Материалы научной конференции 2009 , ( Moscow 2009 ), pp . 197-211 .
5 Its presence on the photograph in question was pointed out by Maria Makhanko ( Moscow ), author of several works on hagiographical icons of Saint Nicholas .
Journal of Icon Studies 1