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ST. NIKITA AND THE DEVIL

Creator(s): Unknown

Currently in storage


About this object

One of the functions of the oklad was to embellish out-of-style icons, adapting them to contemporary worldly tastes. Here the spatial realism of the oklad corrects the stylistic weaknesses of the earlier icon beneath.

St. Nikita is seated on a raised dais within an interior, at the center of a dynamic, diagonal composition. A winged angel hovers behind his right shoulder, holding a crown in its left hand while with its right it propels a long-handled trident at the fleeing devil in the lower right. Christ In a cloud bank at upper left is the , at the center of a struggle between At the center of a dynamic diagonal composition Nikita, clad in a short blue-green tunic with gold borders, green trousers and short boots with a red cloak. [...] Five helmeted soldiers peek out from behind the picketed fence at left. The icon is covered with a silvered metal oklad, probably mid 19th century.

Object name:
ST. NIKITA AND THE DEVIL
Made from:
Tempera on wood -- silvered metal
Made in:
Russia
Date made:
1600-ca. 1850
Size:
12 5/8 × 10 3/4 × 12 7/8 in. (32.1 × 27.3 × 32.7 cm)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
54.41
Class:
ICON
Signature marks:
LABEL; INSCRIPTION ICON: on verso: HAS TO BE DONE (on masking tape), No 17 RITZA WORK DONE 8a ICON HAS TO BE DONE No 5 (on label); 84-3044 (on label attached to hanging wire; inscription cut into the wood parallel to side . . . V PAMIAT' . . .; OKLAD: on plaque at upper center: SV. VEL. MU. NIKITA;
Credit line:
Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973