Saint Nicholas

unknown

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Basic information
ID
С-I-1217
Author
unknown
Name
Saint Nicholas
Date of creation
late 18th–19th c
Country
Ukraine
Culture
Folk
Technique
carving
Material
wood
Dimensions (height x width x depth, cm)
87 x 32 x 21
Additionally
Information about author
Author
unknown
Country
Object description
Saint Nicholas is one of the oldest venerated saints in Ukraine. The tradition of his veneration, and thus his iconography, can be traced back to the official adoption of Christianity in Kyivan Rus. One of the oldest images of St Nicholas is a mosaic in Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The frontal sculpture from Lopatyn represents an elongated figure of an elderly man dressed in episcopal vestments – a phelonion and omophorion – covered with relief crosses. The saint's softly sculpted elongated face shows calm and balanced expression. The unknown artist demonstrated his skill as a carver and his knowledge of anatomy, observing the correct proportions of the human body. In its original form, for greater emotionality of the image, the sculpture was polychrome; the remnants of blue and red paints were preserved on the back of the figure.
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery