Here Saint Nicolaas is depicted in the Dutch tradition accompanied by Blackamoor Zwarte Piet (1850). Some accounts consider the black boy to be a servant while others a freed slave. Yet others say he orginated from a chimney sweeper covered permanently in soot. Although modern controversy has arisen, by most accounts St Nicolaas or Sinterklaas, was indeed a generous patron for children, sailors, and the poor who originated from a Greek Bishop of Myra.
