The development of the cult of St Nicholas and its iconography with a particular reference to Malta

Abstract

The topic of the present dissertation is the visual representation of St Nicholas, the miracle-working Christian saint. St Nicholas has been widely venerated and in the course of the past one and a half millennia there have been significant changes in his iconography regarding both his physical features and the attributes that make him recognisable. Due to his popularity, there are ample extant images linked to his cult. As a consequence of the above factors, studying the iconography of St Nicholas has promised to be worthwhile: firstly, in order to better understand what this specific field of research entails and secondly, as an exercise in gathering and categorising different images, compiling an inventory of what is still accessible in Malta. The latter of these two, i.e. the creation of a convincing narrative thread linking groups of images together, giving as full an account as possible of the extant artworks, occasionally comparing them with images outside Malta may be considered the main aim of the present dissertation. After a brief overview of the international spread of the cult originating from Byzantine Lycia and eventually reaching all corners of Medieval Europe, the focus of the dissertation shifts to Late Medieval, post-Norman Malta, in search of one or possibly more than one entry point for the cult. As it becomes clear, the oldest still available proofs of an awareness of St Nicholas are not artistic representations but very old names. To provide a brief chronological overview, the saint‟s Late Medieval and then Early Modern, typically Mannerist representations are strictly non-narrative. That only changes with the Baroque, an era which is highlighted as a time of prosperity, defined by renowned seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artists such as Mattia Preti (1613-1699), Maria de Dominici (1645-1703) and Francesco Zahra (1710-1773) as well as those who belonged to a vernacular tradition. The nineteenth and twentieth century are important due to further narrative representations from that time period, while the twenty-first century is mentioned primarily in connection with a still living cult.