10 works, Today, December 6th, is Saints Nicholas' day, his story, illustrated #339

Unknown iconographer

St. Nicholas saving those in danger at sea

Icon

I have no further description, at this time

Saints Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra (345) is probably the best-loved Saint of the Church. His numberless miracles through the ages, on behalf of the countless Christians who have called on him, cannot be told.

Jacopo Tintoretto, (1519–1594)

Jacopo Tintoretto: St Nicholas of Bari, c. second half of 16th century

Oil on canvas

Height: 114 cm (44.8 in); Width: 56 cm (22 in)

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria 

Tintoretto; born Jacopo Comin, (October, 1518 – May 31, 1594) was an Italian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso. His work is characterized by its muscular figures, dramatic gestures, and bold use of perspective in the Mannerist style, while maintaining color and light typical of the Venetian School.

 

In his youth, Tintoretto was also known as Jacopo Robusti as his father had defended the gates of Padua in a way that others called robust, against the imperial troops during the War of the League of Cambrai (1509–1516). His real name "Comin" has only recently been discovered by Miguel Falomir, the curator of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, and was made public on the occasion of the retrospective of Tintoretto at the Prado in 2007. More on Tintoretto

He was born in Lycia, in Asia Minor, around the end of the third century, to pious Christian parents. His love of virtue, and his zeal for observing the canons of the Church, were evident from his infancy, when he would abstain from his mother's breast every Wednesday and Friday until the evening. From early youth he was inclined to solitude and silence; in fact, not a single written or spoken word of the Saint has come down to us. Though ordained a priest by his uncle, Archbishop Nicholas, he attempted to withdraw to a hermit's life in the Holy Land; but he was told by revelation that he was to return home to serve the Church publicly and be the salvation of many souls.

When his parents died, he gave away all of his inheritance to the needy, and thereafter almsgiving was his greatest glory. He always took particular care that his charity be done in secret. 

Unknown iconographer

Nikolaus throws three golden balls into the room of three poor girls

I have no further description, at this time

Perhaps the most famous story of his open-handedness concerns a debt-ridden man who had no money to provide dowries for his daughters, or even to support them, and in despair had resolved to give them into prostitution. On three successive nights the Saint threw a bag of gold into the window of the man's house, saving him and his daughters from sin and hopelessness. The man searched relentlessly to find and thank his benefactor; when at last he discovered that it was Nicholas, the Saint made him promise not to reveal the good deed until after he had died. This story may be the thin thread that connects the Saint with the modern-day Santa Claus.

Ilya Repin, (1844–1930)

Saint Nicholas of Myra saves three innocents from death, c. 1888

Oil on canvas

215 × 196 cm (84.6 × 77.1 in)

Russian Museum,  Saint Petersburg

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (5 August 1844 – 29 September 1930) was the most renowned Russian artist of the 19th century. He played a major role in bringing Russian art into the mainstream of European culture. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873), Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1883) and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–91).

 

Repin was born in Chuguyev, in the Kharkov Governorate (now Ukraine) of the Russian Empire into a military family. He entered military school in 1854 and in 1856 studied under Ivan Bunakov, a local icon painter. He began to paint around 1860. In 1874–1876 he showed at the Salon in Paris and at the exhibitions of the Itinerants' Society in Saint Petersburg. He was awarded the title of academician in 1876.

 

In 1901 he was awarded the Legion of Honour. In 1911 he traveled to the World Exhibition in Italy, where his painting 17 October 1905 and his portraits were displayed in their own separate room. In 1916 Repin worked on his book of reminiscences, Far and Near. He welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917. Celebrations were held in 1924 in Kuokkala to mark Repin's 80th birthday, followed by an exhibition of his works in Moscow. In 1925 a jubilee exhibition of his works was held in the Russian Museum in Leningrad. Repin died in 1930 and was buried at the Penates. More on Ilya Yefimovich Repin

One of the earliest attested stories of Saint Nicholas is one in which he saves three innocent men from execution. According to Michael the Archimandrite, three innocent men were condemned to death by the governor Eustathius. As they were about to be executed, Nicholas appeared, pushed the executioner's sword to the ground, released them from their chains, and angrily chastised a juror who had accepted a bribe.

Natalya Klimova

St Nicholas calming the storms
For further information

Natalya Klimova was born on February 24, 1991 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

"From 2006 to 2011 I studied in the Nizhny Novgorod art school from which I have graduated with honors, I have gained the diploma with honors and the Praise of Council of the State certifying commission for the thesis.

Since 2012, a student of the St. Petersburg state Academic institute of painting, a sculpture and architecture of I. E. Repin.

Since 2014, a student of masterful monumental painting A. A. Mylnikova (professor Repin S. N., Morgunov M. V.)

Works are in the museum Academies of Arts in St. Petersburg, private collections of Russia, the USA, China, Canada, England, Switzerland and Finland. More on Natalya Klimova

God honored his faithfulness by granting him unparalleled gifts of healing and wonderworking. Several times he calmed storms by his prayers and saved the ship that he was sailing in. Through the centuries he has often done the same for sailors who call out to him, and is considered the patron of sailors and all who go to sea.

He was elected Bishop of Myra not long before the great persecutions under Diocletian and Maximian (c. 305), and was put in prison, from which he continued to encourage his flock in the Faith. 

Unknown artist

Council of Nicaea in 325

Byzantine fresco

Basilica of St. Nicholas in Demre, Turkey.

When the Arian heresy wracked the Church not long after Constantine came to the throne, St Nicholas was one of the 318 Bishops who gathered in Nicea in 325. There he was so incensed at the blasphemies of Arius that he struck him on the face. T

Unknown iconographer

Detail; St. Nicholas striking Arius

Icon

I have no further description, at this time

his put the other bishops in a quandary, since the canons require that any hierarch who strikes anyone must be deposed. Sadly, they prepared to depose the holy Nicholas; but in the night the Lord Jesus and the most Holy Theotokos appeared to them, telling them that the Saint had acted solely out of love for Truth, not from hatred or passion, and that they should not act against him.

Lorenzetti Ambrogio

Saints Nicholas' ship full of grain, c. 1332

Tempera on panel

Uffizi, Florence, Italy

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, (born c. 1285, Siena—died c. 1348), Italian artist who ranks in importance with the greatest of the Italian Sienese painters, Duccio and Simone Martini. He is also the younger brother of painter Pietro Lorenzetti. Only six documented works of Ambrogio, apparently covering a period of merely 13 years, have survived. 

It is not known who Ambrogio’s teacher was, but his early works indicate that he early received his main inspiration from the art of Duccio, his brother Pietro, and Giotto. Already his representations reveal a realistic individualism and an intense preoccupation with significant composition and form. His desire to depict spatial depth convincingly led him to an increasingly accurate rendering of space in his paintings and almost to one-point perspective in his last work, the Annunciation. With his profound interest in perspective and in Classical antiquity, Ambrogio anticipated the Renaissance.

The art of the Lorenzettis was widely imitated in Siena during the third quarter of the 14th century, and many works by close followers are still commonly attributed to one or the other brother. More on Ambrogio Lorenzetti

He sometimes miraculously appeared in distant places to save the lives of the faithful. He once saved the city of Myra from famine by appearing to the captain of a ship full of grain, telling him to take his cargo to the city. 

Unknown artist

St. Nicholas appearing to St. Constantine the Great in his dreams

Fresco

Decani Monastery 

I have no further description, at this time

Saints Nicholas also appeared in a dream to Constantine to intercede for the lives of three Roman officers who had been falsely condemned; the three grateful soldiers later became monks.

Unknown iconographer

Translation of the Relics of St. Nicholas of Myra, c. 17th cent

Icon

Historic Museum in Sanok, Poland

The holy bishop reposed in peace around 345. His holy relics were placed in a church built in his honor in Myra, where they were venerated by throngs of pilgrims every year. 

According to an account,  after Myra was conquered by the Saracens, three ships sailed from Bari into Myra's harbor in the spring of 1087. Forty-seven well armed Barians disembarked and strode into the church of Saint Nicholas, where they tied the monks up, and smashed their way into Nicholas's sarcophagus. And so Nicholas of Myra became Nicholas of Bari.

The Venetians, also say their own sailors visited Myra during the First Crusade and stole Nicholas’s remains, which have been in Venice ever since. For centuries, both Bari and Venice have claimed the saint's skeleton.

Scientists studied both Bari and Venice bones. They concluded that the Venetian and the Bari relics had come from the same skeleton, and theorized that the Venetian sailors had stolen what was left in Myra after the Barians had done all their smashing.

Every year, quantities of fragrant myrrh are gathered from the casket containing his holy relics. More on Saints Nicholas

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, and 365 Saints, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.