ST. NICHOLAS

Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches, 2003

(Collection of St. Nicholas Center, Holland, Michigan)

This painting, slightly different stylistically than the others, was created in connection with the artist's life-long interest in St. Nicholas of Myra, the topic of the artist's doctoral dissertation.  It was supposed to be a work like a traditional icon, but not entirely so.  Iconic elements include bright colors, flatness of the composition, and the lack of the traditional perspective.  Most of the miracles from the life of the saint are based on existing real icons, but here they are combined to fill the background of the painting rather than being distributed around the margins of the work in small rectangular boxes.  Non-iconic details are color transitions, particularly in the river, the landscape, and the garments of the saint, as well as a few Western miracles, known only from the Golden Legend.  The stories from the life of the saint are told more or less chronologically:  they begin in the lower left corner with the birth of the saint, his schooling, and his first miracle of healing a woman with a withered arm. Going upwards, we see the saint's consecration as a bishop, his healing of a demoniac, and his saving of the three girls in Constantinople from prostitution.  Next, the saint saves Demetrios from drowning and rescues a ship from the wrath of the goddess Artemis; later, he arrives in Palestine and the doors of a church miraculously open for him. He expels devils from a well and a tree, forces a Polovtsian to bring the promised ransom to his benefactor in Kiev, extracts water from a mountain, and defeats a dragon.  The last miracle is very rare and can be found only in one Russian version of the saint's vita and in one icon. In the upper section, next to the head of the saint, we see his miracle of returning the sight to the Serbian king Stephen and, across the river, his miracle of enriching a poor monastery. Below the monastery miracle, the saint saves three innocent men from execution, he appears to the Emperor Constantine in a dream, and he saves the other innocent three men from prison.  Across the river from these three scenes, under the scene with king Stephen, the saint saves a boy from drowning and makes his father bring to the saint's church the promised precious goblet. This story, known only from the Golden Legend, finds a parallel in Old Russian texts, in which a boy is saved from drowning and placed, safe and sound, on the altar of St. Sophia cathedral in Kiev. This miracle is illustrated after the miracles of bringing a ship full of grain to the city of Myra during a famine and returning Basil, captured by Saracens, to his parents. Below the latter miracle, the saint buys a carpet from an old man and returns it to the man's wife, he saves a patriarch from drowning, and he releases Peter of Athos from prison. Below the miracle with Peter, we see the rendition of another uniquely Western tale, in which the saint restores  to life three students who were pickled in a barrel by a greedy innkeeper. Below the barrel miracle the saint appears at the first Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, during which he stands firm against the heresy of Arius. Across the river, under the carpet miracle, we see another story not illustrated in icon painting -- a story of a poor man who gave away all his remaining money to the poor and was richly rewarded by the saint. This miracle and the miracle at the Council frame the fascinating story of the three merchants, thrown off a ship by the pagan crew, but saved by the saint, who sent a stone and a whale to their rescue.  The last two scenes depict the burial of the saint and the translation of his relics from Myra to Bari in southern Italy. Next to the head of the saint we see Christ and the Virgin, two images related to the story of the saint's participation in the Council against Arius:  when the saint defended the Church too vigorously, he was put in prison and his Gospel book and omophorion were taken away from him.  However, Christ and the Virgin appeared to the saint in prison and returned these objects to him, confirming his bishop's position.  The picture is framed by inscriptions in Old Russian, describing briefly all the miracles.  On the top, the fanciful letters spell The Life and Miracles of St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia, and at the bottom an Old Russian inscription informs about the year of the picture's completion and its author.  Two more figures can be seen at the very top of the painting, above the miracle inscriptions.  These are two Russian martyrs, the princes Boris and Gleb, murdered by their brother and canonized as the first Russian Orthodox saints.

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