KONDAKOV, NICODIM PAULOVITCH. — Russian Byzantinist, b. at Chalan (governorate of Kursk) in 1844, d. at Prague on 16 Feb. 1925. He taught from 1871 to 1887 the history of art at the University of Odessa; then at St. Petersburg from 1888 to 1917. He was curator, for the medieval and Renaissance sections, of the Hermitage Museum in that city, and corresponding member of the Institute of France. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, persecuted and deprived of his property, he left Russia at the age of 76 and took refuge, in 1920, first in Sofia, then in Prague, teaching his beloved subject in the respective universities.
During the time of his residence in his homeland, K. undertook numerous journeys both within Russia and in other parts of Europe, especially Italy, which he traversed extensively and regarded as his second fatherland; he also directed various archaeological missions in Syria, Palestine, Macedonia, Georgia, etc. The fruit of his studies and travels are several fundamental works for the knowledge of Byzantine and Russian art, namely: *Storia dell’arte bizantina, considerata nelle miniature dei manoscritti greci* [History of Byzantine Art, Considered in the Miniatures of Greek Manuscripts] (2 vols., 1876; translated by Travinski into French and completely revised in 1886 and 1891); *Gli smalti bizantini* [Byzantine Enamels] (1892, translated into French and German); *Le antichità russe nei monumenti d’arte* [Russian Antiquities in Art Monuments] (1889–99); *Viaggio archeologico in Siria e Palestina* [Archaeological Journey in Syria and Palestine] (1904); *La Macedonia. Viaggio archeologico* [Macedonia: An Archaeological Journey] (1909); *Viaggio al Sinai* [Journey to Sinai] (1882); *Monumenti dell’arte cristiana al Monte Athos* [Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Athos] (1903); *Iconografia del Signore* [Iconography of the Lord] (1905); *Iconografia della Madonna* [Iconography of the Madonna] (4 vols., Paris 1914–1915; in this work the relations between Greek and Russian religious painting and Italian painting of the early Renaissance are studied; vol. III, concerning Italian painting, is incomplete; the manuscript of vol. IV, saved from the confusion, was acquired by Pius XI); *L’icona russa* [The Russian Icon] (published in Prague from 1929 onwards under the care of the Seminarium Kondakovianum founded in Prague to perpetuate his memory); *Ricordi e Riflessioni* [Memories and Reflections] (Prague 1927).