Leaf from a folding icon with the icon "Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker" (fragment)

The central leaf of a folding triptych icon, made of yellow metal; rectangular in form, close to square; at the top is a shaped ("kiot-like") header in the form of a church dome. At the corners of the leaf are convex, ring-shaped hinges for attachment. The icon shows a half-length, frontal image of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker in episcopal vestments: sakkos, omophorion, mantle, and cuffs; he blesses with his right hand and holds an open Gospel in his left. In the background are half-length images of Jesus Christ and the Mother of God, seated among clouds. To the right and left of the halo around Nicholas's head is the inscription: "SAINT NICHOLAS... THE WONDERWORKER." Above the heads of Christ and the Virgin Mary are the inscriptions "IC XC" and "MR ΘU." In the header of the icon is a half-length image of the Icon Not Made by Hands (the Holy Face), flanked by the inscription "IC XC," "KING... OF GLORY." The composition is rich in fine detail; the hair on the saint's head and in his beard is arranged symmetrically in small locks, and the ornament of his vestments recalls a "Persian" pattern. A floral ornament decorates the halo around Nicholas's head. A geometric cord-like ornament fills the background of the icon, giving it a woven texture.

The icon was donated to the museum by Ivan Fedorovych Kholmohorov of Kharkiv in 1989.