Photograph by Ed Pollard, Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital slr-2020.

Saint Nicholas

Makerattributed to Guillaume Barbe (French, documented 1456 - 1488)

Dateca. 1470

MediumGlass with silver stain and vitreous enamel

Dimensions59 1/16 × 27 3/8 in. (150 × 69.5 cm)

ClassificationsGlass

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2019.36.1

Terms

Christianity
Rouen
glass
stained glass

On View

On view

Descriptiona monumental lancet panel depicting Saint Nicholas of Myra standing before a purple “cloth of honor” woven with a golden pomegranate pattern and stylized bird-and-vine motifs. The figure wears a blue cope lined with green and a gem-studded mitre and holds a gold crozier, marking his rank as Bishop. He raises his right hand in the sign of Benediction, and looks in three-quarter profile to the viewer’s right. A complex stone architectural setting is visible above the saint’s head and below his feet. In the lower right portion of the panel, three naked youths face Saint Nicholas with their hands at prayer. The story of these youths’ resurrection by Saint Nicholas was popularized in the Golden Legend, a late medieval hagiography (an account of the legendary lives of saints) by Jacobus de Voragine (ca. 1230-1299). The panel consists of blue, green, purple, red, and clear flat glass decorated with silver stain and vitreous enamels, joined together by lead cames and stabilized with horizontal reinforcing bars. The work is set into a rectangular black frame and illuminated with LED as a lightbox.