History and Culture: The exposition “Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. Icons of the XIII-XX Centuries” presented in Moscow

The exhibition Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. Icons of the XIII-XX Centuries has been opened at the Engineering Building of the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow).

The new exhibition project of the Tretyakov Gallery is dedicated to Nicholas the Wonderworker, one of the most worshipped saints of the Christian world. Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Lycian Myra was called “pleaser” and “fast helper” in Rus’. Numerous temples were dedicated to him, and his images could be seen in every church.

The exhibition features icons from the XIII-XX centuries from the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery and private collections.

Saint Nicholas patronized the Tretyakov family. The house, where Pavel Mikhaylovich was born, is located near the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Golutvin that had a chapel in honour of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker and was well-known because of it. The Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi, the parishioner of which was P. M. Tretyakov, became an integral part of the museum where the icon Theotokos of Vladimir is located.

The exposition starts with the earliest of the exhibited icons that introduce visitors with the life of Saint Nicholas.

Other sections of the exhibition are dedicated to the unique iconographic pieces that reflect the miraculous images of Saint Nicholas that greatly contributed to the Russian history and culture: icons of Saint Nicholas of Zaraysk and Saint Nicholas of the Velikaya River, and a wooden statue of Saint Nicholas of Mozhaysk. The sculpture itself, created in XIV century to commemorate the salvation of Mozhaysk from the enemy, is kept in the Treasury of the Tretyakov Gallery. The exhibition displays its carved and picturesque replicas.

Another theme of the exhibition is the pictures of Saint Nicholas with other worshipped saints: martyrs, healers, saint princes and reverends.

The examples of small plastic arts give a lot of information on the specifics of worshipping the Saint. These small and seemingly unremarkable stone-carved icons often preserve early proof of the existence of iconographic canons that were known in the iconography only in the Late Middle Ages.

The last section of the exhibition showcases more intimate and private side of worshipping Nicholas the Wonderworker. Of particular interest are the image of 1914 from the collection of the old believers Rakhmanovs, its frame, in which the fragments of earlier works are carefully combined, and wooden folding icons of XIX century that were brought by pilgrims from Sergiyev Posad.

Many of the exhibited works are displayed for the first time. Among them is the icon revealed specially for the exhibition and painted by Tikhon Filatyev for the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Golutvin, the hagiographic image of Saint Nicholas from the collections of the Mamontov family, the icon of Saint Nicholas of Mozhaysk from the second half of XVII century from the collection of icons of the Andrew the First-Called Foundation, and the image of the same iconography from a private collection.

The exhibition will run until August 28, 2022.