Icon - Nicholas the Wonderworker - Wood

Icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker
Russian school, 19th century
Provenance: European private collection
Region: Russia
Period: 19th century
Material: Egg tempera and silver leaf on wooden panel
Style: Russian Orthodox iconography
Orthodox icon representing Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, in a frontal half-body composition, with circular halo and episcopal blessing gesture in accordance with the Byzantine canon. The saint wears an omophorion decorated with crosses and holds the Gospel open with an inscription in ecclesiastical Cyrillic. On either side of the halo appear the usual secondary figures of Christ and the Virgin, delivering respectively the Gospel and the omophorion, a traditional iconographic motif associated with Saint Nicholas and widely diffused in Russian iconography.
The work is executed in egg tempera on panel, with a traditional stucco (levkas) preparation and a background of silver leaf, originally burnished and subsequently patinated by warm glazes. The natural oxidation of the silver now yields golden and ochre tones, a characteristic phenomenon of 19th-century Russian icons and clearly observable in the background and the halo. The modeling of the face, with severe and expressive features, is built up through superimposed layers of ochres and greens, with fine, confident strokes in the eyebrows, eyes, beard and hair, following schemes inherited from medieval tradition, reinterpreted within the 19th-century devotional Russian production. The identifying Cyrillic inscriptions, partially preserved, reinforce its liturgical and devotional character.
From a stylistic point of view, the icon belongs to a 19th-century Russian production faithful to canonical models, conceived for domestic or parish worship. The balanced composition, the hieratic treatment of the face, and the use of patinated silver leaf confirm a traditional execution, detached from modern reproductions or industrial processes.
The condition is consistent with its age: it shows widespread craquelure, localized losses of polychromy and of the metallic coating, surface abrasions and wear in the more exposed areas, as well as natural varnish oxidation. The panel’s reverse shows signs of use and aging, with no evidence of invasive modern restorations. It preserves an authentic historical patina that reinforces its reading as an antique icon.
An authentic 19th-century Russian icon, of correct iconographic quality and notable visual presence, suitable for a specialized collection of Orthodox icons or for display in a historical-devotional context.
Shipping: Ships only to European countries.