The Vologda Version of the Icon «St Nicholas of the River Velikaya». On Different Redactions of the Hagiographical Versions of the Miracle-making Image. M.A. Makhanko (Moscow)

Creating copies – of various degrees of likeness – from old icons or newly-painted miracle-making icons was part of paying tribute to them. The study of such copied icons is similar to a textological study of written versions of medieval literary works. The present paper considers several copies of the miracle-making icon of St Nicholas of the River Velikaya, which rose to fame in Moscow in the summers of 1555 and 1556. The arrangement of marginal scenes and certain other iconographic and stylistic details, common techniques and color solutions provide the evidence of the closeness of these copies which were probably created at the same time and in the same center. Today these copies belong to various collections, such as the museums of Vologda and Arkhangelsk, St Cyril White-Lake Museumpreserve, and also in some museums abroad, such as the collection of the Banca Intesa in the Leoni Montanari Palazzo Gallery in Vicenza, and in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. Their origin, when it is known, confirms their common place of origin in Vologda, its environs, and other regions of northern Russia influenced by the Vologda artistic culture.

All the icons are linked by a clear sequence and unity of the hagiographical cycle, the same arrangement and selection of the subjects in the marginal scenes as well as the tendency towards multi-figure compositions especially in illustrating the public episodes from St Nicholas' Life (for example, «Salvation of Three Men from Execution», «Return of Agrik'sson Vassily», «Burial of St Nicholas».) In the scenes of burial some monks are invariably present. The miracle of young Vassily suddenly appearing in his father's home is presented as a festive occasion involving many witnesses and a display of strong emotions. The images suggest allusions to the New Testament: for instance, in the scene of the boy St Nicholas being taken by his father and mother to his teacher, the mother is depicted as a likeness of Holy Anna, the mother of the Blessed Mother of God. The architecture is presented in a solemn spirit so that the walls and chambers are not merely a background but recreate the atmosphere of a particular Hellenic city where the events described in St Nicholas Life took place. The recurring motives and details, such as gestures or inclined figures, underline the emotional tenor of the events depicted. Variations of the color range, now bright and contrasting, as in the icons from the village of Luda, and now gentle and whitish, almost enamel-like in texture, as in the icons of St Cyril Monastery, do not interfere with but, on the contrary, intensify the general iconographic and compositional features of the icons, which may be classed with the Vologda redaction of the hagiographic version of the miracle-making icon of St Nicholas of the River Velikaya. Its appearance dates back to the period when the miracle-making original icon was present in the Vologda region on its way back from the capital to the city of Vyatka. According to the chronicles this journey could have taken about two months which is long enough for painting several copies from it or outline drawings. The study of compositional characteristics, iconographic and stylistic nuances of the other extant icons of this type will enable us to get a better idea of and insight into the history of this icon eminently famous both in the capital and far beyond.