St Nicholas

Unknown artist

To meet the increasing demand for images of Saint Nicholas, the publisher Barent Koene took a damaged 16th-century woodblock with a portrait of Emperor Charles v and had it reprinted with the name of the saint on top. The emperor’s original headdress, a beret with a feather, was transformed by a well-aimed swipe of red ink into a sort of nightcap, and there you have your kindly saint.