Antique Russian Icon
St Nicholas of Myra.
The shoulder-length images
17-18 century
North Russia
Good condition for its age
Size : 31 x 28 cm
Hand painted
Tempera on wood
Kovcheg
Shallow and Narrow Kovcheg (17th Century): If the recess is shallow and the borders are thinner, it leans toward the 17th century. During this time, painters began adopting Western trends, and the structural recess became less pronounced.
St. Nicholas is depicted on the shoulder, so that only a white omophorion with dark crosses and a small triangular collar fragment decorated with precious stones are visible. The face is large with a high and wide forehead, large eyes, a thin long nose and a small mouth.
Shoulder-length icons (oplechny) of St. Nicholas emerged in the late 15th century and became particularly widespread in the 16th century St. Nicholas Icon Types. They are strongly tied to Northern Russian and Muscovite artistic traditions, characterized by a severe but gentle face and highly stylized, jewel-like elements on the collar
The shoulder-length images of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker became an integral part of the artistic heritage of the Russian North, and the peak of their popularity and the formation of a distinctive style occurred in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
The 17th century : The period of the highest distinctive development of "northern icons." Icon painters from the Vologda, Arkhangelsk, and Olonetsk lands deliberately eschewed complex decorative details of clothing in order to focus all attention on the saint's eyes. Images from this century often possess a magnetic, stern, yet merciful gaze.