Saint Nicholas

The hierarch saint is represented in full-length, standing frontally and blessing with his right hand. In his left, now lost, he must have been holding a book. He is flanked by two miniature figures of Christ, offering him a Gospel book, and the Virgin, offering an omophorion with both hands. This theme usually accompanies the representation of St Nicholas, since it refers to the dream he saw while imprisoned by Constantine the Great, who unfrocked the hierarch for slapping the heretic Arius during the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. The scene is enclosed within a mosaic border of continuous triangles, and a second broader band formed by the wood itself, sheathed in silver. The relief decoration of the latter is considered to be contemporary with the mosaic scene, apart from a part at the bottom, which was added later. The icon is composed of small tesserae of unequal size and a variety of colours. The head of the saint, as well as Christ and the Virgin, is worked with the smallest tesserae, laid out with great care and closer to each other than the rest. The handling of the material in such a minute scale reveals an absolute control of the media from an artist with high craftsmanship. The icon is usually dated in the 11th century, although it has also been assigned to the 12th. Its relation with miniatures of the 10th century and Menologia of the 11th century, as well as the study of the iconographic, technical and stylistic features of the silver revetment, point to the earlier dating of the icon. If this dating is accepted, then the icon of Saint Nicholas of Patmos must be considered as one of the earlier, if not the earliest mosaic icon of the ‘miniature’ family.