St. Nicholas

Abstract

History of the painting of Saint Nicholas is associated with the altar of the same invocation located at the north wall of the nave of Paczółtowice temple. Mannerist altar of Saint Nicholas was made around 1630 probably by the Lesser Poland wood carving and sculpture workshop responsible for the construction of the altar of Saint Agnes of Rome in the church in Lesser Poland Iwanowice. The altar, according to tradition and older studies not confirmed by sources, comes from the Wawel cathedral. It came to the church in Paczółtowice at an unknown time, certainly before 1833, when it was first recorded in the inventory of the church in Paczółtowice. Although the altar is currently a heterogeneous work, which in its present shape was composed in the 1880s or 1890s, the painting depicting Saint Nicholas seems to be a work of modern structure of reredos. Such dating of the work is confirmed by the presence of a gilded background embossed into a pomegranate motif derived from the medieval tradition as well as a certain rigidity and static in the depiction of the figure of the saint. Image of Saint Nicholas in Paczółtowice is typical and cult representation. The saint was depicted in accordance with the traditional iconography of this character: as a mature, grey-haired man with a beard, dressed in vestments: an alb, a surplice and a richly decorated chasuble. He holds his traditional attribute - a book, which depicts three golden balls referring to the legend of three daughters known for his life created in the first half of the 9th century. The figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary depicted in the upper part of the composition, offering to Nicholas the episcopal miter, stole and book, are in turn an iconographic motif of Byzantine origin. The oldest images of the saint include iconic representations in which Nicholas is depicted in a bust, frontally with a book in his hand, accompanied by Christ handing him the Gospel Book and Mary handing him an omophorion.