Figure 16 . ( Top Left ) Standing Virgin and Child . Fresco in the church of the Virgin Arakiotissa , Lagoudera , Cyprus , 1192 .
Figure 17 . ( Above ) The Virgin of the Sign ( Virgin Orans ). Yaroslavl , circa 1124 . Tretyakov Gallery , Moscow .
Figure 18 . ( Left ) The Virgin of the Burning Bush . End of the 16th century . Kolomonskoe Museum , Moscow ( from the Monastery in Solovki ).
in 1113 , to commemorate which the stone cathedral of Saint Nicholas was erected in the Novgorod Dvorishche . 23 In the 16 th century , however , when our icon was executed , the wonder-working round image of Saint Nicholas was no longer in Novgorod . Its fate is described by late Novgorodian chronicles compiled in the 17 th century on the basis of extremely valuable information not reflected in other documents . From the chronicle text we learn that in 1502 the Moscow Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievich ( Ivan III ) gave orders for the “ wonder-working icon round panel of Nicholas the great miracle-worker ” to be taken from Novgorod to Moscow , where it was placed in the Kremlin , in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the grand prince ’ s palace , which , it should be noted , contained other rare and valuable icons as well . Unfortunately there was a fire in the Kremlin in 1626 and the wonder-working icon of Saint Nicholas was burnt together with other valuables in the church . 24
We can assume that , in accordance with tradition , copies were made of the wonderworking icon for Novgorodian churches while it was still in Novgorod , and also after it was taken to Moscow . From these copies , in turn , new copies could have been made , with changes in individual elements of the composition . Our icon is unlike the earliest of the surviving replicas , a 16 th -century icon in the Novgorod Museum , in the type of face , the drawing of the robes , the contours of the hand raised in blessing and the form of the Gospel book . 25 Another icon , however , probably executed later than the one just mentioned , in the second half of the 16 th century and renewed in the late 17 th to early
23 S . E . Smirnova , “ Круглая икона св . Николая Мирликийского из новгородского Николо-Дворищенского собора . Происхождение древнего образа и его место в контексте русской культуры XVI в .”, Древнерусское искусство . Русское искусство Позднего Средневековья . XVI век ., ( St . Petersburg : Dmitriy Bulanin , 2003 ), pp . 314-340 ; E . A Gordienko ,.“ Икона святителя Николая на круглой доске из Никольского собора в Новгороде ”, Почитание святителя Николая Чудотворца и его отражение в фольклоре , письменности и искусстве , ( Moscow , 2007 ), pp . 111-116 .
24 Уваровская летопись . Рукопись XVII в . БАН ( Library of the Academy of Sciences of Russia , in S . Petersburg ), 34.4 . 1 . Л . 488 об . – 489 ; Забелинская летопись . ГИМ ( State Historical museum , Moscow ), Забел . 261 . Л . 408 об .; V . V . Yakovlev “ Сказание об иконе Николая Чудотворца « круглая доска » и поздняя летописная традиция ”, Опыты по источниковедению . Древнерусская книжность . Сборник статей в честь В . К . Зиборова , ( St . Petersburg , 1997 ), pp . 139-140 .
25 L . Nersessian , ( ed ). Иконы Великого Новгорода XI – начала XVI века , ( Moscow : Severniy palomnik , 2008 ), Cat . 5 .
10 Journal of Icon Studies