Exhibitions
Moraga, CA, Hearst Art Gallery, St Mary’s College, Icons and Easter Eggs of Imperial Russia, 1995
Bibliography
A. Ruzhnikov, A. Harlow, Icons and Easter Eggs of Imperial Russia, Hearst Art Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, Morgana, 1995
A traditionally painted icon encased in a silver-gilt engraved and repoussé oklad with niello halos and rococo cartouches chased around the border. The icon depicts the Orthodox saint Nil Stolbensky, the monk saint, who established his hermitage on Stolobny Island in Lake Seliger in the mid-1500s. St Nil is shown as an elderly man with short grey hair and a long beard. He wears a simple monastic cape; his hands are raised in supplication to the Mother of God and Christ Child which appear to the top-right corner of the image. The background depicts the monastery founded by the saint.