Andrei Rublev's icon "Trinity" is the pinnacle of Russian icon painting, and according to some experts, it has no equal in the entire world of fine arts. One way or another, its artistic value is undeniable. As for the content, then, perhaps, there is no icon more mysterious. We are talking about solving the simplest question at first glance: who is depicted on it? There are three hypotheses in the research literature on this. Let's consider the arguments "for" and "against", based on the probable assumptions about the worldview of Andrei Rublev, about the theological program that he could be guided by when creating this icon.
And then we propose our own fourth hypothesis.
HYPOTHESIS FIRST
The icon directly depicts three persons of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Her lack of persuasion is obvious. A student of Theophanes the Greek, brought up in the strict traditions of Byzantine theology, Andrei Rublev could not even think of the possibility of directly depicting the hypostases (persons) of the “triune God”. Departure on this issue was all the more unacceptable because heretics - antitrinitarians brought to the fore the teaching of the Holy Scriptures about the invisibility and ineffability of the deity. On this basis, they argued that there could be no icons depicting God at all.
HYPOTHESIS SECOND
The icon depicts Jesus Christ "according to divinity" accompanied by two angels.
This hypothesis corresponds to the most traditional interpretation of this iconographic plot in the 15th century. According to the Bible (Gen. Chapter 18), Abraham and Sarah, who lived in the oak forest of Mamre, were visited by three strangers. After a meal and announcing to them about the imminent birth of a son, two wanderers went to the nearby cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were to be destroyed for their extreme depravity, and the third remained with Abraham. The church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (4th century) described the icon that was in his time near the legendary oak tree in Mamre. It depicted the meal of three strangers, served by Abraham and Sarah (hence the name of this plot was "Abraham's hospitality"). Explaining why the central figure of the wanderer is larger than the other two, Eusebius wrote:
“This is the Lord who appeared to us, our Savior himself ... The Son of God revealed to the forefather Abraham what He is, and gave him knowledge of the Father.”
One of the greatest teachers of the church, John Chrysostom (end of the 4th century), confirms this interpretation:
“In Abraham's booth, the angels and their Lord appeared together; but then the angels, as ministers, were sent to destroy those cities, and the Lord remained to talk with the righteous, as a friend talks with a friend, about what he intended to do.
Chrysostom explains Abraham’s address to them in the singular by this special privileged position of one of the wanderers:
“Lord! if I found favor in Your sight...» Gen.18:3.
The most common, especially in the Christian East, the iconographic type of the "Trinity" corresponded to just such an interpretation. It is also implied in the Byzantine depiction which is the closest predecessor of the Rublev type "Trinity": in the double portrait of John Kantakouzenos, where he is presented both as Emperor and as a monk, which he became after the loss of the throne. Together with Patriarch Philotheus (Kokkin) and theologian Gregory Palamas, he actively introduced the "hesychast" tradition in Byzantine society: the deification of the soul and body by the blessed energies of the Holy Trinity.
Here the middle figure is depicted with a cross-shaped halo, which serves as an indication of Jesus Christ, and the figure to the right of us is noticeably enlarged - an indication that it symbolizes God the Father, "right hand" (i.e., on the right hand) of which Christ sits.
Arguments in favor of Hypothesis 2:
a.
Andrei Rublev, by virtue of his implied theological "traditionalism", could not deviate from the generally accepted Byzantine canon.
b. The side angels are depicted as if ready to move (they are going to go punish Sodom and Gomorrah), while the middle angel, in contrast to them, is at rest (it remains to talk with Abraham).
C. The light stripe, the so-called "clave", on the chiton of the middle character is a sign of his special dignity, which distinguishes Jesus Christ from angels.
Objections to the arguments in favor of Hypothesis 2:
a.
Andrei Rublev, without going beyond the Byzantine tradition, managed to fill it with new semantic content.
The icon "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev differs sharply from the monuments that preceded it, - considers one of the modern researchers of Rublev's work G.I. Vzdornov.“It has a polemical content and, undoubtedly, was directed against heretical interpretations of the dogma.”
This statement is only partly true. It is known that Rublev in his theological "innovations" relied on the authority of Sergius of Radonezh - "mystery of the Holy Trinity", as he is called by the hagiographic chronicle. The image of the Trinity on the main stamp of the icon "Archangel Michael with deeds" 10-15 years earlier than Rublev's "Trinity", shows that the direction of the spiritual search had already been set. Rublev completes it, with brilliant perfection, realizing the plan that was born before him and is well known to him.
b. As M.V. Alpatov, the middle angel is not distinguished in the sense of lack of movement: his right knee is raised, that is, like the side angels, he is ready to stand up. The harmonious combination of rest and movement is typical for all three figures and for the composition of the icon as a whole.
in. Despite the blurring of the image, a green clave is also visible on the tunic of the right angel. True, on the left sleeve, and not on the right, like the average angel.
Additional objections to Hypothesis 2:
G. Abraham and Sarah are absent from the icon. By this, the icon painter makes it clear that the content of the icon is not tied to the biblical episode of "hospitality of Abraham."
d. If the middle angel depicted Jesus Christ, then, in accordance with the icon-painting tradition, his halo would be octagonal or cross-shaped. A simple round halo is characteristic of images of angels or saints.
e. The nimbus of the middle angel is noticeably smaller than the nimbus of the lateral angels, which clearly contradicts the assumption of its higher hierarchical position. Art critic A. A. Saltykov’s idea that the reduced size of the halo of the middle angel serves to create the impression of “depth” and, consequently, the significance of the figure of the middle angel, is not at all convincing. On the icon of Andrei Rublev, in accordance with the icon-painting tradition of the era, not direct, but reverse perspective is used, that is, distant objects are depicted larger than close ones. If an icon painter wanted to create an impression of “depth” for the average figure, he would make his halo larger! In addition, this would emphasize the superiority of Jesus Christ over the angels. On other icons of that time, the nimbus of the middle figure was depicted either of the same size or larger than the halos of the other two figures.
HYPOTHESIS THREE
The icon depicts three angels, understood as the "image and likeness" of the Holy Trinity.
This hypothesis is supported by most church theologians and some art historians. As A.A. Saltykov writes, for example:
“In this work, the artist depicted, of course, not the hypostases themselves, but angels, in the actions and attributes of which they (hypostases) are manifested.”
Arguments in favor of hypothesis 3:
a.
The main theological and polemical task of Rublev consisted in a visual depiction of the “equal honor” of the three persons of the Holy Trinity; this is possible only if all three figures on the icon are beings of the same nature, in this case, angelic.
In the early iconography of the Trinity, the idea of equality was expressed in the so-called "isocephalic" type of icons, which had spread in the West since the 4th century BC. and met in Russia in the era of Rublev. In accordance with this task, the three figures had the same dimensions and were located side by side on the same level. In Rublev's idea of "equivalence" is expressed by the same size and spherically symmetrical arrangement of the figures.
b. The angelic nature of the figures on the icon is indicated by wings and round simple halos.
in. The "non-attachment" of the image to the biblical episode allows you to change the location of the figures, symbolizing the faces of the Holy Trinity. The middle angel can be understood as an image of God the Father: in this case, its central position corresponds to the theological doctrine of the Holy Trinity as a "cathedral of equal persons" and at the same time as a "monarchy of the Father." Such a point of view was held, for example, by such an authoritative art critic as N.A. Demina.
However, most researchers (V.N. Lazarev and others) believe that Rublev placed the image of the Father to the left of us, i.e. on the right hand of the central figure symbolizing the Son. The clincher: the commanding gesture of the hand of the left angel, expressing the idea of the "monarchy of the Father".
Archbishop Sergius (Golubtsov) proposed an original version of the identification of persons, who emphasized that, according to the Creed, the Son should sit at the “right hand” of the Father, that is, at the right hand of Him. If the image of the Son is in the center, then the angel, symbolizing the Father, should be located to the left of Him, that is, to the right of us.
Objections to Hypothesis 3:
a.
At the time of Rublev (as well as before him), there was no stable church tradition that singled out three angels equal in their significance. In liturgical and biblical texts, in iconography and church legends, not three, but two higher archangels, Michael and Gabriel, are clearly distinguished. It is difficult to put any third angelic name in line with them. Considering the peculiar “concreteness” of the theological thinking of that era, it is difficult to imagine that Rublev, depicting three angels as an image of the Holy Trinity, did not ask himself the question - which angels can serve as Her symbol?
In this regard, a more fundamental question inevitably arose: can a cathedral of three angels of any rank carry in itself the fullness of the image of the Holy Trinity? It could, of course, not be about the fullness of the image in the sense of perfection (no "creature of God", neither man nor angels could claim this), but only in the sense of the internal structure, the very principle of trinity.
b. Wings in the iconography of the Rublev era cannot be regarded as an unambiguous indication of angelic nature. So, among the Byzantine and Russian icons of the XIV-XV centuries. you can often find the plot "John the Baptist - the angel of the desert", where the prophet John is depicted with wings.
On some icons (in particular, on the icon of the Last Judgment or the Apocalypse), monastic monks are often depicted with wings. Thus, wings in iconography are a general symbol of spirituality; they can belong to both angels and saints who have reached a special degree of spiritualization of their human nature.
in.
With any method of identifying faces, the reduced size of the halo of the middle angel still remains incomprehensible. If he were the image of the Son, or, moreover, the Father, such a “diminution” of him in comparison with the other two angels would be unjustified.
G.
The bowl with the head of a calf on the throne is, of course, a symbol of the Eucharist, that is, “communion of the body and blood” of Jesus Christ as a person. If Andrei Rublev wanted to depict angels, then it is not clear why he emphasizes the Eucharistic nature of the meal. Within the framework of church tradition, the idea of the communion of angels of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ seems completely unacceptable, since the angels themselves do not have flesh and blood. Of course, in the biblical description of "Abraham's hospitality" it is indicated that the pilgrims ate and drank, but in this episode the angelic nature of the pilgrims is not explicitly emphasized in any way.
The text of the Bible says that “three men” came to Abraham, so Abraham has no doubt that these are three people for whom a meal should be prepared. In another episode, the inhabitants of Sodom do not recognize the angels in two wanderers and take them for ordinary people. It is only through prophetic insight that Abraham realizes that the Lord appeared to him, accompanied by two angels who took on a human form: some legends say that these were Michael and Gabriel. One of the possibilities for a theological understanding of this episode was that the angels temporarily "inhabited" some specific people who lived under Abraham.
Since all the above hypotheses meet with serious objections, we will allow ourselves to express one more and try to substantiate it.
HYPOTHESIS FOUR
The icon by Andrei Rublev depicts three people who are the image of the Holy Trinity.
Arguments in favor of Hypothesis 4:
a.
According to the texts of Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Church, among all created beings, the fullness of the image of God belongs exclusively to man.
“And God said,” the Bible narrates, “Let us make man in Our image, and in Our likeness ... And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him ...”.
Gen. 1:26-27.
It says about angels:
"They are ministering spirits, sent to minister to those who have to inherit salvation." Heb. 1:14.
According to the teachings of the Church Fathers, God, wishing to unite with His creation, became a man, not an angel, precisely because only man bears in himself the fullness of the image of God and is the “crown of creation.”
It is quite reliable to assume that for Andrei Rublev, three people who find unity in spiritual love seemed to be the most perfect and complete image of the hypostatic unity of the Holy Trinity. One of the most important New Testament texts, the so-called “priestly prayer” of Jesus Christ during the “Last Supper”, where he first celebrates the Eucharist and communes the disciples (Jn. Chapters 13 - 17), should have convinced him of this. Addressing the Father with the words:
"You, Father, are in me, and I in you"
Jesus asks the Father about the disciples:
“Let them be one as We are one” Jn. 17:21-22.
Rublev's icon thus served as a visible expression of the New Testament definition of God:
"God is Love" 1 Jn. 4:8.
b. The biographer of Sergius of Radonezh, Epiphanius the Wise, reports that Sergius called
“by looking at the unity of the Holy Trinity, overcome the fear of the hated strife of this world.”
The unity of the Holy Trinity was for Sergius a symbol of gathering together all the people of the Russian land. The same Epiphanius points out that Andrei Rublev painted his illustrious icon "Trinity" "in praise of Sergius", by order of Abbot Nikon, the closest student of Sergius of Radonezh. It can be argued that a certain way of thinking arose in the circle of St. Sergius, an original style of theologizing, and that Andrei Rublev was one of the spokesmen in the language of the icon of the theological program that developed in this circle. The conviction that human love, human conciliar unity is the highest embodiment of the Holy Trinity, should have imparted special inspiration and effectiveness to the sermons of Sergius of Radonezh and his followers.
in.
The Eucharistic chalice, which forms the spiritual and compositional center of the icon, receives a natural explanation. Depicting a hypostatic, personal unity in love, Rublev complements this spiritual unity with a symbolic image of bodily unity achieved through communion. Thanks to the sacrament, says the apostle Paul,"We, who are many, are one body in Christ" Rom. 12:5.
G.
The icon of the Trinity of the end of the 14th century, the so-called “Zyryanskaya”, is known to be unique in its theological content, with a number of features characteristic of the Rublev icon: three figures at the table
have the same dimensions; in the center of the table is the Eucharistic chalice; the tree is located directly behind the back of the middle figure, and does not grow from the mountain, as usual. In addition, this icon has two remarkable features.
Firstly, each of the characters has a cross-shaped halo, and, secondly, there are inscriptions in the Zyryan language near them: the left one (from us) has “Son”, the central one has “Father”, and the right one has “Spirit”!
The similarity of halos indicates the identity of the nature of the three depicted faces. Since the cross-shaped nimbus traditionally denoted Jesus Christ as a man, we can conclude from this that the “Son” is the man Jesus, while the “father” and the “spirit” are two other people “of equal honor” to him! This is also indicated by the inscription "father", "son" and "spirit" instead of "God the Father" "Son of God" and "Holy Spirit".
This icon is not an artistic masterpiece, but its fundamental significance is determined by the fact that it was created in the region where Stefan of Perm, the famous “enlightener of the Zyrians”, the closest associate and friend of Sergius of Radonezh, was at that time Bishop of Perm. The icon was found among Stefan's personal belongings and, of course, painted by his order, if not by himself: the inscription in Zyryansk served the purposes of his sermon. It can be stated with certain certainty that the author of the Zyryanskaya Trinity, like Andrei Rublev, was guided by the theological ideas of Sergius of Radonezh.
d. Working together with Daniil Cherny in 1408 in Vladimir on the painting of the Assumption Cathedral, Andrei Rublev had the opportunity to get acquainted with the fresco of the Vladimir Dmitrovsky Cathedral of the late 12th century: “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob in Paradise”. On this fresco, the forefather Abraham is depicted in the center, on the right hand is his son Isaac, on the left is the son of Isaac Jacob, who, according to the Bible, became the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Daniel and Andrew, repeating this fresco, change the arrangement of the figures: on the right hand of Isaac - Jacob, so that each is on the right hand of his father. Since the Bible often uses the name "God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob", cited by the teachers of the church as evidence of the trinity of the deity, this image carried an important theological load. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob - three people who are the image of the Holy Trinity.
The central position of Abraham on the fresco of the Dmitrovsky Cathedral corresponded to the main idea of the theological Orthodox teaching about God the Father as the "source" of the Holy Trinity (the Father "begets" the Son, the Holy Spirit "comes" from the Father). The location of the figures on the fresco of Daniil Cherny and Rublev emphasizes another theological statement: that the Son of God "sits at the right hand of the Father." Both of these provisions are expressed in the Nicene-Tsaregrad ("baptismal") creed, which the faithful repeat during each liturgy.
In these frescoes, Andrei Rublev dealt with the authoritative church tradition, according to which three people, connected by a deep personal and tribal unity, were considered as a living image of the Holy Trinity.
Development of Hypothesis 4:
If three people are depicted on the Rublev icon, then the question inevitably arises: are three holy people depicted here in general or three specific persons? In an attempt to answer this question, we enter into the realm of the most controversial, but at the same time the most interesting and important assumptions ...
Our assumption is that Andrei Rublev portrayed three faces that he should have considered the highest in the hierarchy of human incarnations. The very existence of such a hierarchy could not cause doubts in the theologian of that era.
“The glory of the sun is different,” writes the apostle Paul, “the glory of the moon is different, the glory of the stars is different; and star differs from star in glory. “Thus it is written,” continues Paul, “the first man Adam became a living soul, and the last Adam is a life-giving spirit... The first man from the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.” 1 Cor. 15:41-47.
This text could become a key one for Andrei Rublev.
So, "first man" - Forefather Adam, who, undoubtedly, among the entire human race, had the greatest reason to be considered as a hypostatic image of God the Father."Second Man", "God from Heaven" - this, of course, is Jesus Christ, who, according to the Christological dogma, being God, served as the prototype of himself as a person. Who then"third man" - "last Adam" ? Let's delay answering this question - let's consider the topic first"Adam-Jesus" in the context of the Rublev icon.
The parallel between the "old man" Adam and the "new man" Jesus is often found in the texts of the New Testament, in dogmatic and liturgical texts, in the works of the "fathers of the church" and church hymns.
In iconography, the man Jesus Christ is depicted next to Adam in a very important and widespread plot in the Middle Ages - in the icon of the "Resurrection of Christ", which is otherwise called "descent into hell." The first thing that Jesus Christ does when he breaks the “gates of hell” is that he brings out his forefather Adam (together with Eve and a number of the Old Testament righteous). In those days, it was widely believed that this “bringing out of hell” also meant the bodily resurrection, together with Christ, of a whole galaxy of the Old Testament righteous. Adam and Eve, although they sinned, were considered righteous because of their sincere repentance. This opinion was confirmed by the text from the Gospel of Matthew, which describes the events after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ:
“And the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” Matt. 27:52-5.
According to medieval tradition, Mount Calvary, on which Jesus was crucified, was the burial place of Adam. This is reflected in a widespread iconographic plot: the head (skull) of Adam under the Calvary cross. According to church tradition, drops of Jesus' blood, having soaked into the ground, reached the bones of Adam and resurrected him. Like all his contemporaries, unconditionally believing this tradition, Andrei Rublev had to imagine Adam already redeemed from sin, resurrected bodily and dwelling in heaven at the throne of God.
So, Andrei Rublev had enough grounds in the church tradition to put Jesus and Adam next to each other (more precisely, to sit at the same meal). The parallel drawn in the New Testament between these two persons pointed to their human “equal honor”, to the equality of “scales” in the conciliar hierarchy of the human race. Of course, Jesus Christ "according to divinity" was thought to be infinitely superior not only to Adam, but also to himself as a man. Jesus and Adam are depicted on the icon in their resurrected, spiritualized bodies, which is emphasized by the presence of wings as a symbol of spiritualized nature. It is possible that, depicting the wings, Rublev also had in mind the text of the Gospel of Luke about the resurrected people:
"And they can no longer die, for they are equal to the angels..." Lk. 20:36.
The proposed interpretation allows us to give an unconstrained explanation of a number of symbols in the Rublev icon.
Additional arguments in favor of Hypothesis 4:
a.
The reduced halo above Adam's head serves as a reminder of original sin; this, as it were, “compensates” for the central and dominant position of Adam in relation to Jesus. Of course, here is shown the image of the relationship of God the Father to God the Son, and Jesus Himself, according to legend, showed filial piety even to his adoptive father Joseph, especially to the forefather Adam ... And at the same time, for the Christian consciousness of Andrei Rublev, the need to somehow to "belittle" Adam before Jesus should have seemed obvious.
b. The stone chambers above the head of Jesus symbolize the church and himself as a "steward" and head of the church. Some researchers see an anagram IH in the arrangement of the columns, i.e. Jesus of Nazareth - a name emphasizing that Jesus is depicted here as a man, and not as God.
in.
The tree above Adam's head, most likely, reflects the favorite plot of Russian icon painters of that era: "the tree of Jesse." Adam was always depicted at the base of the tree, and the Old Testament righteous were located on its branches. Sometimes the "tree of Jesse" was thought of as the genealogy of Jesus going back to Adam. It is also possible that this is also a symbol of the heavenly "tree of life",
also associated directly with Adam.
G.
An explanation of the color symbolism of the icon can be given. The reddish-brown color of Adam's tunic (underwear) symbolizes the "dust of the earth", from which, according to the Bible, God created Adam:
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gen. 2:7.
The name Adam in patristic interpretations was often translated from Hebrew as "red earth", which could serve as the basis for choosing the color of Adam's tunic. Clave on the right sleeve of the chiton, which has the same color as the wings, possibly indicates the "breath of life", which spiritualized "the dust of the earth."
The blue color of Jesus' tunic symbolizes his human nature as the nature of the "new man". According to church teaching, Jesus the man is a maternal descendant ("son") of Adam; at the same time, being conceived “not from the seed of a man,” but from the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived as the founder of a “new humanity,” into which the sons of Adam enter through communion with the “body and blood” of Jesus Christ. The origin of Jesus from Adam is symbolized by the color of the sacrificial calf (this calf is Jesus Christ as the Sacrifice) in the Eucharistic chalice, coinciding with the color of Adam's tunic. The blue color of the himation (outer garment) of Adam indicates his belonging, through the sacrament, to the "new humanity" of Jesus Christ. The golden color of the himation of Jesus symbolizes his divine nature: according to the Chalcedonian dogma, Jesus Christ was understood not just as a man, but as God, who, while remaining God, also became a man. The most difficult thing remains for us: to give an interpretation to the third person depicted on Andrei Rublev's icon "Trinity". But this is the topic of the next article.
We advise you to read:
DEMINA N.A. "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev. M. 1963.
LAZAREV V.N. Andrei Rublev and his school. M. 1966.
Alpatov M.V. Andrei Rublev. M. 1972.
Libery VORONOV (professor-archpriest). Andrei Rublev is great
artist of ancient Russia. Theological Works No. 14. M. 1975. S. 77-95.
VETELEV A. (professor-archpriest). Theological content of the icon
"Holy Trinity" by Andrei Rublev. Journal of the Moscow Patriarchy 1972.
No. 8. S. 63-75; No. 10. pp. 62-65.
Archbishop SERGIY (Golubtsov). The embodiment of theological ideas in creativity
Reverend Andrei Rublev. Theological Works No. 22. M. 1983. S. 3-67.
VZDORNOV G.I. Newly discovered icon of the "Trinity" from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and
"Trinity" by Andrei Rublev. Old Russian art. artistic
culture of Moscow and adjacent principalities. XIV-XVI centuries M. 1970.
pp. 115-154.
Ilyin M.A. Art of Muscovite Russia in the era of Theophan the Greek and Andrei
Rublev. Problems, hypotheses, research. M. 1976.
Saltykov A.A. Iconography of the "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev. Old Russian
art of the XIV-XV centuries. M. 1984. S. 77-85.
Andrey Chernov. WHAT IS TRUE? SECRET WRITING IN THE TRINITY OF ANDREY RUBLEV. http://chernov-trezin.narod.ru/TROICA.htm
A. Chernov, following N.A. Demina, accepts the same interpretation of the figures as in the Zyryanskaya Trinity, and analyzes in detail the monogram IН. Unfortunately, I only recently found out about this most valuable article, published back in 1989. LR 2011.
Six centuries ago, Russian people for the first time saw the Holy Trinity icon painted by the monk Andrei Rublev. Until then, nothing like this had been seen in Russia, and, perhaps, in the entire Orthodox East. And they didn’t even dream that this was possible - to depict the indescribable ...
"Trinity" Andrei Rublev is complete. Maybe it's because we have lost the key to deciphering the ancient "theology in colors." Or maybe it already seemed mysterious to contemporaries of the icon painter. Unraveling its secrets, art historians will break their spears for a long time to come. Rublev, like no one else, was able to create in his works not one or two, but many semantic layers, harmoniously subordinated to each other. In order to open them all, to fully read all the semantic levels of the Trinity, one must be just as subtle a thinker, knowing all the facets of Orthodox theology, worship and ascetic prayer work, as Monk Andrei himself was - "excelling all in great wisdom".
Perhaps the icon that came out from under his brush struck the icon painter himself. He put all the strength of his soul and spirit into her. His prayer during the work was clear and peaceful, and the tension that possessed him poured into the deepest peace of harmony on the icon. Reigning around, in Russia, discord, violence, enmity, cruelty were melted in the pure heart of the icon painter into the contemplation of heavenly beauty and perfect love. It was as if the Holy Spirit himself was guiding Monk Andrei by his hand, opening up to his gaze transcendental spheres. Or St. Sergius inaudibly and invisibly conversed with his disciple, who was bending over the blackboard.
The birth of Rublev's "Trinity" was associated with the initial stage of the canonization of Sergius of Radonezh, which stretched for more than thirty years, until the mid-1440s.
It all started after the Tatar invasion of 1408, when the wooden church with the entire Trinity Monastery, which stood above the burial place of Sergius, was burned to the ground. Together with the determination to restore the monastery better than before, Abbot Nikon came up with the idea of glorifying his teacher as a saint. Even then, the successor of Sergius thought about finding the relics of the elder and the construction of the stone Trinity Church - a worthy monument to the Radonezh chief.
Appearance of the Holy Trinity to Saint Sergius. V. Firsov
But, obviously, it was not possible to get from the new Metropolitan Photius, who had just arrived in Russia from Byzantium, consent to the glorification of a Russian monk still unknown to him. Probably, Nikon did not wait for the money for the stone church. The time was "scarce and needy", the princes of the Moscow land were forced to resume paying tribute to the Horde. After several years of desolation, a wooden church had to be rebuilt on the church site of the monastery. Its consecration took place on the day of memory of Sergius on September 25, 1412 (according to another version, 1411).
The main characters in the preparation of the glorification of Sergius were, in addition to Nikon, the scribe Epiphanius the Wise and the icon painter Andrei Rublev.
After the consecration of the new church, Elder Epiphanius read to everyone who had gathered for the celebration in the monastery his “Word of Praise to Our Reverend Father Sergius.” (Several years later, it entered the final part of Epiphany's Life of Sergius.) Through the entire text of praise runs the thought of the angelic, "immaterial" life of Sergius on earth, his assimilation to the angelic image as "an earthly angel and a heavenly man."
The icon-builder Andrei went much further than Epiphanius in the work conceived by like-minded people. According to many assumptions, he created his "Trinity" at that time for the wooden monastery church. If in the mid-1420s he and an artel painted the already stone Trinity Church “in praise of Sergius”, then the equally laudatory “Trinity” preceded that. And in this icon, Sergius is imprinted almost literally.
Numerous discrepancies in the interpretation of Rublev's "Trinity" and the breaking of copies in scholarly disputes are obviously due to the fact that this is not one icon image, but several - superimposed on one another, complementary, appearing one through the other. God the Trinity under the guise of three angelic travelers who once appeared to Abraham is the first and obvious semantic layer. The second is the Church of Christ in its trinity: Christ as its head and creator, angelic heavenly powers and people. The third layer is the sacrament of the Eucharist, which gathers all the faithful into a single divine-human organism by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the uniqueness of the Rublev icon - in its ambiguity, multi-layeredness. It is impossible to interpret any one level without taking into account the rest without confusion of meanings, without falling into contradictions. But most interpreters just stop at the first figurative “layer” lying on the surface, proving which of the angels should see which Hypostasis - the Father, the Son or the Spirit ...
Three angels are connected by a large bowl, the contours of which form two side figures, and the middle one is inside the bowl. They are connected literally, in the "corporeal" and superphysical sense. Who is united by the liturgical sacrament of the Eucharist? Christ under the guise of a bloodless sacrifice in a bowl, angels-co-servants and people who perform the sacrament and participate in it. In other words, all the fullness of the earthly and heavenly Church.
According to one version (its author Alexander Selas, a series of articles “The cryptography of an ancient icon”), Rublev captured a very specific Eucharist in the “Trinity”. More precisely, a generalized image of the Eucharist celebrated by St. Sergius. And in the right angel, which, according to many researchers, is so different from the other two, the icon painter depicted the very “disciple of the Holy Trinity” Sergius of Radonezh. This is proved by the decoding of the color symbolism of his clothes, the posture of perfect, monastic obedience, obedience to the highest, God's will, the expression of deep prayer on his face. Blue is the color of transfigured physicality, creatureliness, green is the color of divine wisdom. Yes, and Epiphany's insistent definition of Sergius as an angel-like husband falls into this series. And a mountain bowed towards Christ behind this angel. And a staff that rests on one knee, rather than standing upright like the other two. And even the fact that the right figure occupies noticeably less space on the icon than the left one, which is symmetrical to it.
The right angel is the priest at the moment of invoking the Holy Spirit on bread and wine, when he "gathers his mind together" in prayer. A. Selas left the traditional “hypostatic” explanation to two other angels - Christ and the Holy Spirit. But the indivisible Trinity cannot be depicted as “three minus one” or “two plus one”. Having said A, you need to say B. And for this, recall the episode of the Life of Sergius, in which during the liturgy the "man of great lordship", the angel of the Lord in a "gold-jet" robe, concelebrates with the abbot. Rublev was certainly familiar with this story of the old monks of the monastery. The fiery pink cloak of the left angel, almost completely enveloping him, really looks like a "gold jet". Only a fragment of a blue chiton speaks of the involvement of this angel in the created world - after all, angels are also created.
Where is the Holy Spirit, who also participates in the sacrament, on the icon? Actually, everywhere, as befits the Spirit, "who is everywhere and fulfills everything." This is the very “clear predominance of golden tones”, which, among other things, distinguishes Rublev’s “Trinity” from others. Again, the description from the Life is recalled: when Sergius served, the Holy Spirit in the form of fire walked along the altar, overshadowed the altar and illuminated the Holy Meal.
A copy of the icon, made by the remarkable artist-restorer Baranov, located in the Trinity Cathedral of the Sergius Lavra. The original is in
However, the left angel can be interpreted differently. The head of Christ is imperiously turned towards him, giving impetus to the circular movement that the viewer feels on the icon and which tangibly connects the side angels. Isn't it depicted here the process of Christ's creation of the Church, its unfolding in time, in earthly centuries? From the initial calling of the apostles and the granting to them of the power to perform the sacraments to each specific liturgy in each church, performed day by day by priests - the successors of the apostles. This circular, rotational movement in this case is a visible expression of the uninterrupted and grace-filled apostolic succession in the Church, coming from Christ. And the left angel is one of the apostles who were participants in the very first Eucharist on earth. The building above it, the symbol of the Church, seems to suggest: “...you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church” (Matthew 16:18). The Apostle Peter, moreover, as is known from the Life of Sergius, accompanied the Mother of God when She appeared to Sergius in his cell. And Rublev also knew about this from the stories of the old monks.
Metropolitan Photius was a disciple of the sacredly silent Hesychast monks of Athos, Orthodox mystics, who contemplated the uncreated Divine Light in deep prayer. The same mystics, who practiced intelligent and heartfelt prayer, were Sergius and Andrei Rublev, and certainly Abbot Nikon. The icon painter could expect that the symbolism of his "Trinity", worked out in many respects by hesychast theologians, would be read.
However, it is not known how the church authorities of that time reacted to the hitherto unprecedented image. A new icon-painting canon was born in the image of the Holy Trinity (it can be called Rublev-Sergius, in contrast to the similar Athos, which appeared a little earlier). Did he generally meet with understanding and approval from his contemporaries, or was he perceived with caution and hidden doubt? The icon amazed, but perhaps at first it frightened with its otherworldliness, some transcendent penetration into God's mysteries...
However, the multi-layeredness of the Trinity is conducive to the fact that anyone contemplating this icon, from a non-literary simpleton to the most wise theologian, can see in it the message that the icon painter Andrei addressed to him. Read the meaning of the "Trinity" that is available to him.
Among Soviet art historians, a worldly interpretation of the Trinity was popular. With a clear example of the church dogma (about the One in three Persons of the Godhead), Rublev called on the Russian princes to reconcile, to end the internecine enmity that had been destroying Russia for more than a century. Such an interpretation, of course, emasculated the theological content of the image, making the icon just a flat illustration of a dogma with moral overtones. A sort of political manifesto in the spirit of "Princes of all lands, unite!".
However, it is also impossible to deny that the icon-painting message of monk Andrei about unanimity and overcoming "hateful strife" still existed. There was plenty of discord, hatred and fear in Russia in those years, which Rublev himself was a witness to. In 1410, the prince of Nizhny Novgorod sent a detachment of three hundred Tatars and Russians on a predatory raid on the former capital of Russia, Vladimir. They completely robbed and burned the city, defiled the ancient miraculous Vladimir icon of the Mother of God in the Assumption Cathedral, ripping off her precious salary. This raid on Vladimir, otherwise dated according to the artistic conception, is reproduced in A. Tarkovsky's film "Andrei Rublev".
Probably, shortly after this pogrom, Andrei painted a spare Vladimir icon for the Assumption Cathedral. The image, in which the same theme of love and sacrifice sounds melodiously, the same melodious prayerfulness, is enchanted by the same deep contemplation as in the Trinity. He created this icon when the horror he experienced had not yet left the city and the echo of Tatar sabers was heard, and charred ruins stood around. Perhaps, in the soul of Andrei in those very days, the royal harmony of the “Trinity” was born, perfect love, expelling fear.
However, in those same years, a much more dangerous strife was ripening in Russia. Moscow, in a little over a century, managed to rise above other Russian lands precisely because in the family of Moscow princes there was no political squabble between brothers, uncles and nephews. But now, striving for inner peace and for the gathering of Russia, Moscow itself found itself face to face with the danger of civil strife. And this is a shadow over all of Russia, just after the Kulikovo field, which felt that its strength was in unity.
A deep quarrel, if not enmity, between the two eldest sons of Dmitry Donskoy, Vasily I of Moscow and Yuri Zvenigorodsky, has been going on for several years since Vasily declared his son to be his direct heir. Yuri also dreamed of a Moscow table and did not want to hear that Moscow, bypassing him, would someday go to his nephew. Book people, clergy, monks who read old chronicles, who knew the centuries-old history of princely strife in Russia, understood that the enmity of brothers in the Moscow princely house was a very serious threat.
This shadow will cover the Russian lands in 1425, when Vasily I dies and his son Vasily II reigns in Moscow. Yuri Zvenigorodsky will start a war with his nephew, it will last a quarter of a century, it will be continued by Yuri's sons. This long strife will once again open the road to Russia for the Tatars, will postpone the liberation from the yoke for many years, will flood the land with blood, will cover it with the shame of terrible crimes. In the early 1410s, Rublev could not help but hear about this still quiet enmity of the heirs of Dmitry Donskoy. Perhaps the heart of the prayer book and ascetic monk Andrei felt the future trouble. The colors of his "Trinity" are literally filled with prayer to God for peace and enlightenment of people.
Stills from A. Tarkovsky's film "Andrei Rublev"
Prince Yuri Zvenigorodsky is a very difficult person. Godson and disciple of Sergius of Radonezh, spiritual son of the Monk Savva Storozhevsky, temple builder and church benefactor. Surprisingly, a great admirer of Sergius, who did a lot for the Trinity Monastery, Prince Yuri will make every effort not to fulfill the main testament of the monk: to overcome discord and enmity by contemplating the Holy Trinity.
And at the same time, Yuri ... the alleged customer of the Rublev "Trinity".
Among the researchers of Rublev's work, there is a confident hypothesis that the "Trinity" and the three surviving images of the so-called Zvenigorod rank were part of one iconostasis ensemble. Three icons of the rank - "Savior", "Archangel Michael" and "Apostle Paul" were discovered in Zvenigorod, on the territory of the princely residence of Yuri Dmitrievich. Many stylistic features, color features, compositional and graphic characteristics, and finally, the perfection of execution make them related to the Trinity. Time separated them, and this probably happened in the second half of the 15th century. But before that, they were an indissoluble unity of the temple iconostasis...
The image of the Holy Trinity is revered by Orthodox Christians around the world. Prayers in front of this icon can protect your life from all evil and worries.
History of the icon
The icon of the Holy Trinity, otherwise called "Hospitality of Abraham", was painted in the 15th century by the famous icon painter Andrei Rublev.
According to legend, the pious husband Abraham one day met three strangers near his house, who did not give their names. Abraham received the travelers and offered them rest and food. During the conversation, three mysterious people told Abraham that they were the messengers of the Lord, His three angels, and announced the imminent birth of their son Isaac. After the prophecy, two angels went to destroy the city of Sodom, which caused the wrath of the Lord, and the third angel stayed and talked with Abraham.
Where is the icon
The icon of the "Holy Trinity" is of great value. Currently, the image is in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Description of the icon
Three angels are depicted on a vertical base, closing a circle near the table. The table is set, there is a bowl on it and grape branches lie. Angels sit under the shade of a sacred tree and a mountain, symbolizing eternal life and the love of the Lord.
The image of three angels indicates to the Orthodox the unity of the Lord in three persons and the sacred, sacral content of this number. Light, love and forgiveness, contained in the image of each angel, indicate the possibility of coming to the Kingdom of Heaven along one of these paths.
What does the icon help with?
They pray to the icon of the Holy Trinity, wanting to comprehend the full power of the grace of God. This image is able to protect the house and family, direct a person who has gone astray to the right path and show him all the greatness and beauty of divine creations.
The icon of the Holy Trinity is prayed for:
- to receive healing of physical and mental ailments;
- about restoring justice and protection from enemies;
- asking for guidance on the right path of life;
- about getting rid of longing and sadness.
Prayers to the icon of the Holy Trinity
“Most Holy Trinity, I humbly pray to You: as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are united into a single force that protects true faith and humility, so the power of love, faith and truth of the Lord will not leave me. May I not fall into the abyss of hellfire, may I not perish in sin and unbelief. Do not leave me, messengers of God and His just Judgment. Amen".
“The Holy Trinity, a symbol of the generosity and power of the Lord, by its power punished the infidels, brought great joy to the servant of the Lord! I beg you, do not leave me in sorrow and sorrow, save my stomach and my spirit from all evil. Amen".
This prayer is able to save you from danger and physical threat.
The Day of Remembrance of the Icon of the Holy Trinity is celebrated on the 50th day after the Resurrection of Christ. At this time, any prayers to the Lord have a special power and are able to bring you to inner balance and joy. We wish you peace of mind and strong faith in God. Be happy and don't forget to press the buttons and
02.06.2017 06:07
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The Trinity image by Andrei Rublev is the most famous and mysterious image of God in the history of Orthodox iconography. Who, besides St. Andrew, was involved in the creation of the icon? What do the symbols behind the backs of the angels and the window in the throne mean? For whom is the fourth place left behind the throne, and how can one “communicate” with this icon? The head of the Department of Christian Culture at the Biblical Theological Institute of St. Apostle Andrew (BBI) and teacher at the Kolomna Theological Seminary, Irina Konstantinovna Yazykova.
- How did you first meet Rublev's Trinity? Maybe you still remember the impressions, feelings from this meeting?
- I met Trinity when I was a student. I graduated from Moscow State University, where I studied art history. From the very beginning, I understood that I wanted to specialize in icon painting. My grandmother was a believer, therefore, since childhood, icons have generally attracted me as a window into a mysterious world. I sensed a secret behind them. Of course, the university gave me the opportunity to understand this professionally, but the very phenomenon of the icon as a window to the divine world remained closed to me, despite the whole complex of my scientific knowledge.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
The Trinity icon is one of the most mysterious. It is difficult for me to fix any specific moment of the “meeting”. However, when I began to deal specifically with the theology of the icon, and I was always interested not only in the artistic side, but also in the theological meaning hidden in the image, then the "Trinity" was, of course, in the center of my attention. I discovered in this image a whole theological well, I saw in it a prayer embodied in colors, a whole treatise on the Holy Trinity. No one, perhaps, spoke more deeply about the mystery of the Divine Trinity in the way that Andrey Rublev "said".
It is known that icon painting is a conciliar art. We love repeating this beautiful phrase, but what does it mean? Rublev's "Trinity" best of all reveals its meaning. The chronicle says that in "the memory and praise of St. Sergius" - I almost literally quote the text - "... hegumen Nikon of Radonezh ordered Andrei Rublev to write the image of the Trinity." So that three people directly participated in the creation of this icon.
Three people directly participated in the creation of this icon.
First to be mentioned St. Sergius of Radonezh, which had already died by the time the icon was painted. But during his lifetime he created a special in its depth doctrine of the Holy Trinity, not different from the church, of course, but deeply understood. On it, on its mystical experience, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra was founded. The chronicle and life of the monk brought to us the main testament of St. Sergius: “ By looking at the Holy Trinity, overcome the hated strife of this world". We remember when this icon was created - during the years of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, "peace", as the chroniclers wrote then, when hatred reigned between people, the princes betrayed and killed each other. It was during these terrible days that St. Sergius placed the Holy Trinity at the forefront as an image of love, which alone can defeat the enmity of this world.
The second person was Nikon of Radonezh. A disciple of St. Sergius, who became abbot of the Trinity Monastery after his death. He built the Trinity Cathedral, where he transferred the relics of St. Sergius. Nikon decided to perpetuate the name of his teacher not through his icon, but through the image of the Holy Trinity. What Sergius of Radonezh taught, what he turned to and in the image of which he founded his monastery, had to find its embodiment in the icon.
The third figure was himself Reverend Andrei Rublev who, as an artist, fulfilled the testament of Sergius of Radonezh. His image of the "Trinity" is a teaching about love, about the depth of the unity of the spirit and harmony, written down in colors.
And when I began to understand how this icon was written, what meanings it contained, a whole world opened up for me. We are not able to understand Christian dogmas with our minds, we cannot describe how the Holy Trinity works - this is a great mystery. But Andrei Rublev revealed this secret to me personally. This is a “conversation of Angels”, who listen to each other, sit at the same table around the bowl, which the Angel blesses in the middle ... Every gesture, turn of the head, every detail is verified, extremely deep. The icon "Trinity" makes it possible to stand before God himself, to see the invisible, even if it eludes our mind.
Any person who comes to this icon may not solve his everyday problems, but something will open to him that exceeds himself, instilling peace, harmony, love.
Any person who comes to this icon may not solve his everyday problems, but something will open to him that exceeds himself, instilling peace, harmony, love.
Therefore, I cannot point to any particular moment in my communication with Rublev's Trinity. This has been with me for almost my entire adult life. Being engaged in iconography, theology of the icon, I always discover something new in this icon.
– What is new in this depiction of the Holy Trinity that was not there before? What is the “breakthrough” of this icon and why was it destined to become canonical? After all, this image has become the property of not only the Russian theological tradition and culture, but also world art. What is this discovery?
- The novelty of the icon, first of all, is that Rublev focused all his attention precisely on the three Angels. Before him, they mainly depicted the “hospitality of Abraham” - the plot of the 18th chapter of the book of Genesis, when three Angels came to Abraham's house. “He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood opposite him. Seeing he ran towards them from the entrance to the tent and bowed down to the ground…”(Book of Genesis 18:2). Based on the narrative of this chapter, it becomes clear that God himself appeared to Abraham. Although there is no unity either among the holy fathers or among icon painters in the interpretation of this plot. Someone claimed that the Holy Trinity appeared before Abraham then. And the icon painters depicted three Angels in the same clothes, indicating their unity and equality to each other. Other theologians spoke of the appearance of God accompanied by two angels. Then one of them was depicted in the clothes of Christ.
Andrey Rublev, eliminating the everyday details of the plot - Sarah and Abraham, the servant who slaughters the calf, that is, everything that the icon painters wrote before him - introduces us to a direct contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity itself. In general, this icon is interesting because it is multifaceted, it can be read in different ways several times: and as the appearance of Christ, because the middle Angel is depicted in the clothes of the Savior. It can also be read as an image of the Trinity - all three Angels are written with almost the same faces. But before us is not an illustration of God. This icon, as in a theological treatise, reveals what the holy fathers called the "Trinity in Unity" - one God in three Persons or Hypostases. The image also reflects the liturgical aspect. The silhouettes of two Angels sitting on the sides form a bowl. And on the throne in the middle stands a cup - a symbol of the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of Christ.
There is another interesting detail on the icon. If you look closely at the throne, you can see in it little window. You know, when you take a tour of the Tretyakov Gallery, it culminates in the Rublev Hall, the heart of which is Trinity. This hall clearly demonstrates how the iconography rises higher and higher in the spiritual sense, until it reaches its peak in the Rublev icon, and then, unfortunately, a gradual decline begins. So usually people, looking at this image, ask: “What is this window?” It is not accidental. I must warn you right away - an incredible amount of literature has been written about the Trinity, in which a wide variety of comments and interpretations are presented. So, one of the researchers writes the following about this window. In any throne that is in the altar of the temple, there are always the relics of saints. But they are not on the altar on the icon. There is the Sacrifice of Christ, which is symbolically depicted in the form of a cup that stands on the throne, but there is no human answer to the height of this sacrifice. What kind of answer is this? This is the feat of martyrs, saints, saints - all saints. Therefore, this window, as it were, conveys God's question: "And what will you answer to the sacrifice of Christ's love?" I really like this interpretation. I think Andrei Rublev could think like that.
Another symbolic layer is associated with the images that stand behind each of the Angels. A tree is depicted behind the middle Angel. This is the tree of life, which, as the Holy Scripture says, the Lord planted in Paradise. Behind the Angel to our left are the chambers, a symbol of divine economy, an image of the Church. Behind the Angel on the right - usually associated with the Holy Spirit - is a mountain. It symbolizes the ascent to the mountainous (spiritual) world. These symbols are directly tied to the Angels and are richer in meaning than in any other icons.
In general, icons always have these three symbols: inanimate nature (mountains), wildlife (trees) and architecture. But in the "Trinity" they are directly tied to each Angel. Andrei Rublev clearly wanted to reveal the relationship of the Angels in this way and the features of each of them
In general, icons always have these three symbols: inanimate nature (mountains), wildlife (trees) and architecture. But in the "Trinity" they are directly tied to each Angel. Andrei Rublev clearly wanted to reveal the relationship of the Angels in this way and the characteristics of each of them.
- Is there a single interpretation of which of the Angels symbolizes God the Father, which - God the Son and the Holy Spirit?
- This is a question - extremely difficult for researchers - is often asked. They answer it differently. Someone says that Christ is depicted in the center, the Father is to the right of Him, and the Holy Spirit is to the left. There is an interpretation that the Father is in the center, but since we cannot see him directly, then, relying on the words of the Savior “he who has seen Me, has seen the Father”, He is depicted in the clothes of Christ, and the Son sits to His right. There are a lot of interpretations.
But this, perhaps, is not the most important thing, oddly enough, in this icon. The Stoglavy Cathedral (1551) approved the icon of Andrei Rublev as canonical, emphasizing that this is not an image of Divine Persons, but an image of the Divine Trinity. Therefore, the Council forbade the inscription of Angels, thus cutting off any possibility of definitively indicating who is who. Also, for this image, it was forbidden to depict the so-called "crossed halo" - an iconographic technique that points to Christ.
It is interesting that Rublev's "Trinity" has another name - "Eternal Council". It opens the other side of the icon. What is "Eternal Council"? This is a mysterious communication within the Holy Trinity about the salvation of mankind: God the Father, with the voluntary consent of God the Son, sends Him into the world for the sake of saving people.
Do you see how many theological layers are hidden in the icon? This image is the most complex theological text. The icon itself is closer to a book than to a painting. It does not illustrate, but symbolically points to something hidden and secret.
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The icon of the Holy Trinity, painted by Andrei Rublev, is not only a masterpiece of fine art. “The icon painter was able to reflect in it the deepest Christian truth: God is not only the Eternal Love of Three Persons. This love is addressed to man, it calls inside the Pre-Eternal Council!” Archpriest Pavel Velikanov about Andrey Rublev’s Trinity.
However, the artistic aspect of this icon is incredibly high. The fact that the "Trinity" is ranked among the greatest masterpieces of world art is not accidental. At the beginning of the 20th century, the restorer Vasily Guryanov found a way to remove a layer of drying oil from darkened icons. In 1904, he cleared a small fragment of the image of clothes on the Trinity, and everyone saw the amazing, piercing blue color of Rublev. People gasped, and an army of pilgrims rushed to the icon. The monks were afraid that the ancient image could be spoiled, they closed the icon with a salary and forbade further work with it. The process started then was completed only in 1918, unfortunately, when the Lavra was already closed. Then a very good restoration team worked there under the leadership of Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar. When they opened the icon completely, they saw amazing, simply heavenly colors: piercing blue, gold and dark red, almost cherry. still present in places a pinkish tint, and greenery appeared on the clothes. These are the colors of Paradise. The icon, through its artistic perfection, reveals Eden to us. What is Ray? This is the existence of the Holy Trinity, God. Where is the Lord calling us? Not to spiritual comfort, but to where there will be the unity of man and God. Just look at the icon: three angels are sitting. They take three sides of a quadrangular throne, but the fourth side is free… She kind of attracts us. This and place reserved for Abraham, which was then visited by the Holy Trinity, and the place left for each of us.
- And the one who approaches the icon, as if becomes the fourth?
- Yes. The icon, as it were, includes its contemplator. On this icon, by the way, it is easiest to demonstrate the famous iconographic principle of reverse perspective. If you extend the lines of the foot of the throne, then they converge where the person stands. And inside the icon itself, these lines diverge, opening eternity before our eyes.
Now you understand why this icon stands alone among the greatest masterpieces of ancient Russian painting? Everything is concentrated in it: both theological depth, and artistic perfection, and the focus on a person - a dialogue with him. After all, icons are different: there are very closed ones, which are difficult to approach, and there are icons that, on the contrary, attract: Rublev painted the Zvenigorod Savior icon - it is impossible to tear oneself away from him. I would stand all my life and look at Him. But the "Trinity" is the golden mean of harmony and perfection.
– Can professional researchers tell us something about the very process of painting this icon? Perhaps we know how Rublev prepared for it, how he fasted, what happened to him while he was writing it?
– Medieval documents hardly mention this. There is only a mention of the customer (Reverend Nikon of Radonezh) and that's it. Nothing more is said about this icon, but we can indirectly reconstruct something. For example, it is known that Rublev was a monk. So he led a life of prayer. Maybe he even took some kind of vow before starting to write the Trinity, but we can’t say anything for sure. Medieval chronicles and documents of that era are extremely stingy with such information. This began to interest people already in the New Age.
Rublev was from a galaxy of disciples of St. Sergius. And it is known about them that they were real ascetics, which means that with a high degree of probability we can say that Rublev was the same. The documents of those times mention many different icon painters. Everyone knows Theophan the Greek - he, by the way, worked together with Andrei Rublev in the Annunciation Cathedral. Someone may remember Daniil Cherny, with whom Rublev worked in Vladimir. There are also less famous names: Isaiah Grechin, Prokhor from Gorodets. However, it was Andrei Rublev who was chosen to paint such an important icon. Such a complex topic could only be entrusted to a person who was congenial to her. Only he can understand its depth and depict it.
But that, unfortunately, is all we can say.
- It turns out that the image of Rublev in Tarkovsky's film is, for the most part, his personal director's view?
- Of course. Tarkovsky's film is very good, but it's more about a man who finds himself in a very difficult era. In my opinion, the question of the film is this: how can a Christian, especially a monk, survive in a cauldron of terrible history, where people kill each other, burn cities, where ruin, filth, and poverty are everywhere? And suddenly - "if only you knew from what rubbish poetry grows!" That is, from what terrible dirt, the deepest human tragedy, great works of art grow. It is clear that Tarkovsky was not going to create a real, historical image of Rublev. He is more interested in an artist who opposes evil with the depth of art, which testifies that there is something else in the world that stands above its horror. Therefore, this film should first of all be considered not as a strict historical picture, but as an attempt by one artist to understand another. Military exploits have no meaning if they do not have the purification of the human soul behind them. Therefore, St. Sergius began not with politics, not with war, but with the purification and education of people. And in this sense, the icon is an important artifact that opposes the darkness of the era. The very fact of writing it is a feat.
If there is Rublev's Trinity, then there is God
- Father Pavel Florensky in his book "Iconostasis" has an interesting idea that Rublev's "Trinity" is the only, most convincing proof of the existence of God.
- Yes. He even said more deeply: "If there is Rublev's Trinity, then there is God."
- And how to understand this phrase?
– For a modern person, this sounds strange, but peering into this icon, we understand that this is a Revelation that exceeds all our ideas. This cannot be imagined. This is not a fantasy. So, behind this image is some other reality - divine. A person who lives by faith in God, who painted such an icon, could not devote his whole life to hallucinations.
Still from the film “Andrei Rublev”, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
In the life of Andrei Rublev there is one interesting remark. When he and Daniil Cherny worked together, they sat for a long time and simply contemplated the icons. They did not write, did not pray, but simply looked, as if they were in front of the icons, eating from them. They wanted to hear the voice of God, to see divine images, which they could then embody in colors. Of course, Father Pavel Florensky, through this thought, pointed out that a self-sufficient reality opens up behind the Trinity. Her man is incapable of inventing.
– Why has Andrei Rublev not been mentioned anywhere in the calendar for five hundred years, and why was he officially canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church only at the end of the last century?
– To be more precise, in 1988, at the Local Council in connection with the millennium of the Baptism of Russia. In fact, Andrei Rublev has always been revered as a saint in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Even icons have been preserved where he is depicted among other Lavra saints. It was always clear to the monks of the Lavra that he was a saint. There was even a legend of the 17th century about the great icon-painting saints, where his name is mentioned. In antiquity, before the so-called Makarievsky cathedrals of the 16th century, there was no fixed list of saints. There were a lot of locally venerated people who were known in one city and not in another. Later, Metropolitan Macarius tried to gather together all the revered saints and include them in one list.
Saint Andrei Rublev was already obvious to his contemporaries. But why he was officially canonized only in the 20th century is understandable. The Council of 1988 canonized those who were already revered by believers. The cathedral only, as it were, officially recognized their holiness
Saint Andrei Rublev was already obvious to his contemporaries. But why he was officially canonized only in the 20th century is understandable. The Council of 1988 canonized those who were already revered by believers. The cathedral only seemed to recognize their holiness officially. It was a kind of "pre-canonization". Just look who was glorified along with Andrei Rublev: Elizaveta Feodorovna, Xenia of Petersburg, Ambrose Optinsky, Ignatiy Brianchaninov. That is, the Council simply stated their veneration and included them in the "saints".
– Turning to the history of the “Trinity” icon itself, do you know about the meetings of very famous people with this icon? Maybe they left their impressions, experiences from her? Maybe there is some important historical event that was associated with this image? He, one might say, lies at the heart of our culture - I want to believe in it, at least ...
- Of course have. I read poems that were dedicated to this image. It is impossible, of course, not to recall Tarkovsky. When he conceived his film "Andrei Rublev", he admitted that he had very vague ideas about him. The employees of the Andrei Rublev Museum told me that one day he came to them and simply began to consult, as with experts in ancient Russian art and in general of that era. Then a copy of the "Trinity" was exhibited in the museum. He stood for a long time contemplating her. After this meeting, he had an inner spiritual turn, without which he would not have been able to create a film of this level.
Related material
The Church treats the doctrine of the Holy Trinity with great trepidation. Nevertheless, people, using various images, tried to convey at least a grain of this secret. We have collected for you the most striking examples of such images.
The story of the discovery of the icon at the beginning of the 20th century, which I mentioned, is also very typical. People rushed to look at the emerging beauty that shone from under this black mass. Just imagine: in front of you is a darkened icon - and suddenly a small piece opens up, and from there it seems like a blue sky looks out.
There is another very interesting case. It is known that Protestants in general have a very negative attitude towards icons. They think it's idolatry and so on. But back in the 90s. I was given a book by a Protestant German pastor who, upon seeing the Trinity, changed his attitude towards icons. He even wrote a whole book in which he tried to unravel this image, giving his interpretation. He realized that this was not an idol, that a different reality was indeed hidden behind the icons. The man is not even just a believer, but a theologian, a pastor, standing deeply in his position, after meeting with the "Trinity" has changed.
I know that in Soviet times this icon and many others brought people to God. The church was then silent. Many temples were closed. Where could a person hear a living word about Christ, about the Church? People began to take an interest in icons, including the Trinity, and then they picked up the Holy Scriptures and other books and came to the Church. I personally know several people who, after meeting with the image of Rublev, came to faith in the Soviet era.
– I remember once, on Pentecost, I came to the temple in the evening. In the center, on a lectern, lay the icon of the Trinity, naturally a copy of Rublev. And that's when I remember this meeting with her forever. There was a feeling that I was standing - and in front of me was an abyss. I did not know where to go, what to do with this abyss. Nothing could be done. Only to stand on the very edge ... It was as if for a moment I was lit up by divine lightning. Perhaps you also have your own personal experience of meeting, the experience of touching this icon, not as a professional, but as a believer?
- How can I tell you? This is not a case .. rather the experience of experiencing this icon, very personal. Sometimes I write poetry. I heard the music and wrote about Trinity. Like she… sounds. Through these colors I heard music, which became my poem.
"Old Testament Trinity (with walking)", icon of the 17th century.The composition includes scenes of the Trinity walking: Abraham meets the angels, washes their feet, the maid kneads the dough, the servant slaughters the calf, Abraham escorts the angels, the angel leads Lot and his daughters out of Sodom, Lot's wife turns into a pillar, Lot with her daughters. All these details are not in Rublev's icon
The icon is based on the Old Testament plot "Hospitality of Abraham", set forth in the eighteenth chapter of the biblical book of Genesis. He tells how the forefather Abraham, the ancestor of the chosen people, met three mysterious wanderers near the oak forest of Mambre (in the next chapter they were called angels). During a meal in Abraham's house, he was given a promise about the coming miraculous birth of his son Isaac. According to the will of God, from Abraham was to come "a great and strong nation", in which "all the peoples of the earth will be blessed." Then two angels went to the destruction of Sodom - a city that angered God with the numerous atrocities of its inhabitants, and one remained with Abraham and talked with him.
In different eras, this plot received different interpretations, but by the 9th-10th centuries, the prevailing point of view was becoming, according to which the appearance of three angels to Abraham symbolically revealed the image of the consubstantial and trinitarian God - the Holy Trinity.
It was the Rublev icon, according to scientists at the moment, that corresponded to these ideas in the best possible way. In an effort to reveal the dogmatic doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Rublev abandons the traditional narrative details that were traditionally included in the depictions of Abraham's Hospitality. There is no Abraham, Sarah, the scene of the slaughter of the calf, the attributes of the meal are reduced to a minimum: the angels are presented not eating, but talking. "The gestures of the angels, smooth and restrained, testify to the sublime nature of their conversation." In the icon, all attention is focused on the silent communication of the three angels.
“The form that most clearly expresses the idea of the consubstantiality of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity, in Rublev's icon, is the circle - it is he who is the basis of the composition. At the same time, the angels are not inscribed in a circle - they themselves form it, so that our gaze cannot stop at any of the three figures and rather stays inside the space that they limit themselves. The semantic center of the composition is a bowl with a calf's head - a prototype of the sacrifice on the cross and a reminder of the Eucharist (a silhouette resembling a bowl is also formed by the figures of the left and right angels). Around the bowl, standing on the table, a silent dialogue of gestures unfolds.
The left angel, symbolizing God the Father, blesses the cup - however, his hand is at a distance, he, as it were, passes the cup to the central angel, who also blesses it and accepts it, by tilting his head expressing his consent: “My Father! If possible, let this Cup pass me by; yet not as I will, but as You” (Mat. 26:39).
The properties of each of the three hypostases are also revealed by their symbolic attributes - a house, a tree, a mountain. The starting point of the divine economy is the creative will of God the Father, and therefore Rublev places the image of Abraham's chambers above the angel symbolizing Him. The Mamvrian oak is reinterpreted as a tree of life and serves as a reminder of the Savior's death on the cross and His resurrection, which opens the way to eternal life. It is in the center, above the angel, symbolizing Christ.
Finally, the mountain is a symbol of the rapture of the spirit, that is, the spiritual ascent that the saved humanity carries out through the direct action of the third hypostasis of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit (In the Bible, the mountain is the image of the “rapture of the spirit”, therefore the most significant events take place on it: on Sinai, Moses receives the tablets of the covenant, the Transfiguration of the Lord is performed on Tabor, the Ascension - on the Mount of Olives).
The unity of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity is a perfect prototype of all unity and love - “May they all be one, as You, Father, in Me, and I in You, so they may be one in Us” (John 17:21). The sight of the Holy Trinity (that is, the grace of direct communion with God) is the cherished goal of monastic asceticism, the spiritual ascent of Byzantine and Russian ascetics. The doctrine of the communion of divine energy as a way of spiritual restoration and transformation of a person made it possible to realize and formulate this goal in the best possible way. Thus, it was the special spiritual orientation of Orthodoxy of the 14th century (which continued the ancient traditions of Christian asceticism) that prepared and made possible the appearance of Andrei Rublev's Trinity.
Salary of Boris Godunov with tsatami of Mikhail Fedorovich and chasubles of the 18th century.(Gold, silver, precious stones, pearls. Chasing, engraving, niello, enamel, gilding)
salaries
Interior of the Trinity Cathedral, 19th century illustration. At present, the copy of the 20th century icon is to the left of the royal doors, the darkened Godunov copy is to the right, between the Mother of God and the Savior.
Thus, it follows from this text that the participants in the Stoglavy Cathedral were aware of a certain icon of the Trinity painted by Rublev, which, in their opinion, fully corresponded to church canons and could be taken as a model.
The next source in time containing information about Rublev's writing of the icon "Trinity" is the "Legend of the Holy Icon Painters", compiled at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. It includes many semi-legendary stories, including the mention that Nikon of Radonezh, a student of St. Sergius of Radonezh, asked Rublev "Write an image of the Most Holy Trinity in praise of your father Sergius". Obviously, this late source is perceived by most researchers as insufficiently reliable.
The generally accepted version of the creation and the problem of dating the icon
According to the currently generally accepted version, based on church tradition, the icon was painted "in praise of Sergius of Radonezh" commissioned by his student and successor hegumen Nikon.
The question of when exactly this could happen remains open.
Plugin Version
The Soviet source historian V. A. Plugin put forward a different version of the life path of the icon. In his opinion, it was not written by Rublev for the Trinity Church commissioned by Nikon of Radonezh, but was brought to the Lavra by Ivan the Terrible. In his opinion, the mistake of previous researchers is that they, following the well-known historian A.V. Gorsky, believe that Ivan the Terrible only “dressed” the already existing image with a golden robe. Plugin, on the other hand, reads the entry in the contribution book of 1673, which reproduces the entries of the unsubscribed vestry books of 1575, it is directly stated: “The Sovereign of the Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia, the contribution is written in the unsubscribed chalice books of 83<...>the image of the local life-giving Trinity, overlaid with gold, crowns of gold" etc. - that is, according to the scientist, Ivan the Terrible invested not only the salary, but the entire icon as a whole. Plugin believes that the tsar donated to the monastery where he was baptized the Rublev icon (to which it was not yet attributed), written for some other place where it had been for the previous 150 years.
Undoubtedly, the icon was painted for one of the Trinity churches of the Sergius Monastery. In 1987, V. A. Plugin put forward the hypothesis that Rublev’s “Trinity” appeared in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery only in the 16th century (second half of the 1550s - 1560s) as a contribution of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (Plugin 1987 ; Plugin 2001, pp. 233–246, 251–279). This opinion is based on a direct reading of the record of the contribution book of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery of 1638/1639 (The contribution book of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The publication was prepared by: E. N. Klitina, T. N. Manushina, T. V. Nikolaeva. Responsible ed. B. A. Rybakov. M., 1987, p. 27), dating back to earlier deposit books and, ultimately, to the unsubscribed vestry book of 1574/1575 (Klitina E. N. Deposit books of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. - Proceedings of the Department of Old Russian Literature of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, T. XXVI. L., 1971, pp. 287–293). Before V. A. Plugin’s research, it was believed that Ivan the Terrible invested only a salary for the icon. New versions of the origin of the Trinity have appeared, however, unconvincing (Plugin 1987, pp. 77–79; Bryusova 1995, pp. 42–45; Plugin 2001, pp. 246–250). However, in 1998, B. M. Kloss drew attention to the information of the so-called Trinity story about the Kazan capture, created before June 1553 (Nasonov A. N. New sources on the history of the Kazan "capture." - Archaeographic Yearbook for 1960. M. , 1962, p. 10), which definitely testify that the icon is not the contribution of Ivan the Terrible, but only “decorated” by the tsar (Kloss 1998, p. 83). Thus, the hypothesis of V. A. Plugin turned out to be untenable. .
Authorship and style
For the first time, as scientists know, Rublev was named the author of the Trinity in the middle of the 16th century in the materials of the Stoglavy Cathedral - that is, in the middle of the 16th century we can already say with confidence that Rublev was considered the author of such an icon. By 1905, the idea that went with the light hand of I. M. Snegirev that the icon in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra belongs to the brush of Andrei Rublev, one of the few Russian icon painters known by name, was already dominant. At the moment it is dominant and generally accepted.
"Archangel Gabriel" from the Vysotsky rank - a monument of the Paleolog style, written in Constantinople
However, after the icon was uncovered from the cleanings, the researchers were so amazed by its beauty that there were versions that it was created by a master who came from Italy. The first to put forward the version that the “Trinity” was painted by an “Italian artist” was D. A. Rovinsky, whose opinion “was immediately extinguished by a note from Metropolitan Philaret, and again, on the basis of tradition, the image was attributed to the number works of Rublev, continuing to serve as one of the main monuments in the study of the manner of this icon painter. D. V. Ainalov, N. P. Sychev and later N. N. Punin compared the Trinity with Giotto and Duccio; with Piero della Francesca - V. N. Lazarev, although their opinion should rather be attributed to the highest quality of painting, and not directly interpreted as a version that the icon was created under the influence of the Italians.
But Lazarev sums up: “In the light of the latest research, it can be definitely stated that Rublev did not know the monuments of Italian art, and therefore could not borrow anything from them. His main source was the Byzantine painting of the Paleolog era, and, moreover, the capital, Constantinople painting. It was from here that he drew the elegant types of his angels, the motif of bowed heads, and the rectangular meal.
Icon in Lavra
According to the archives of the monastery, since 1575, after the acquisition of the salary of Ivan the Terrible, the icon occupied the main place (to the right of the royal doors) in the “local” row of the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. She was one of the most revered icons in the monastery, attracting rich contributions, first from Ivan IV, and then from Boris Godunov and his family. The main shrine of the Lavra, however, remained the relics of Sergius of Radonezh.
Until the end of 1904, Rublev's "Trinity" was hidden from the eyes of the curious with a heavy golden riza, leaving only the faces and hands of angels open.
The history of the icon in the 20th century
How the public saw "Trinity" before 1904: salary plus darkened drying oil (photo collage).
Walter Benjamin, who visited Russia in 1926, wrote about him: “... both the neck and hands, when the salary covers the icon, appear as if in massive chains, so that the angels are somewhat reminiscent of Chinese criminals sentenced for their atrocities to stay in metal stocks.”
Icon "Artemy the Great Martyr". XVIII century. The painting on the right was left uncleaned by the restorers, under a layer of darkened drying oil, to show what the icon looked like before the restoration began. It is also clearly seen that later painting is done in a different style.
The background of the clearing
At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, Russian icon painting as an art was “discovered” by representatives of Russian culture, who discovered that this artistic direction was not inferior in quality to the best world trends. Icons began to be taken out of frames, which covered them almost completely (with the exception of the so-called “personal letter” - faces and hands), and also cleared away. Clearing was necessary, as icons were traditionally covered with linseed oil. “The average period of complete darkening of drying oil or oil-resin varnish is from 30 to 90 years. On top of the darkened cover layer, Russian icon painters painted a new image, which, as a rule, coincided in plot, but in accordance with the new aesthetic requirements of the times. In some cases, the renovator accurately observed the proportions, principles of compositional construction of the original source, in others, he repeated the plot, amending the original image: he changed the sizes and proportions of the figures, their poses, and other details ”- the so-called. renewal of icons.
Trinity Updates
The "Trinity" has been renewed four or five times since at least 1600:
1904 clearing
At the beginning of the 20th century, icons were cleared one after another, and many of them turned out to be masterpieces that delighted researchers. There was also interest in the "Trinity" from the Lavra. Although, unlike, for example, the Vladimir or Kazan icons, she did not enjoy the colossal veneration of believers, did not perform miracles - she was not " miraculous", did not stream myrrh and did not become a source of a large number of lists, nevertheless, she enjoyed a certain reputation - mainly , due to the fact that they believed that this image was the one pointed out by Stoglav, since no other Trinities ordered by Rublev were known. It is important to mention that due to the mention in Stoglav, the name of Rublev as an icon painter (as if his “canonization” as an artist) was highly revered among believers, and therefore many icons were attributed to him. “The study of the Trinity could provide art historians with a kind of reliable standard, against which one could get an exhaustive idea of the style and methods of work of the famous master. At the same time, these data would allow for an examination of other icons that were attributed to Andrei Rublev on the basis of a legend or conventional wisdom.
At the invitation of the father-governor of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in the spring of 1904, the icon painter and restorer V.P. Guryanov, took the icon out of the iconostasis, removed the gold chased salary from it, and then for the first time freed the icon of the Trinity from later records and blackened drying oil. Guryanov was invited on the advice of the collector I. S. Ostroukhov, the restorer was assisted by V. A. Tyulin and A. I. Izraztsov.
As it turned out, the last time the "Trinity" was updated (that is, "restored" according to the concepts of ancient icon painters, writing down again) in the middle of the 19th century. When removing the salary from it, Guryanov saw, of course, not Rublev’s painting, but a continuous record of the 19th century, under it was a layer of the 18th century from the time of Metropolitan Platon, and the rest, perhaps some fragments of other times. And already under all this lay Rublev's painting.
| When the golden riza was removed from this icon, - Guryanov writes, - we saw the icon, completely written down ... On it, the background and margins were sankir, brown, and the inscriptions were new gold. All the clothes of the angels were rewritten in a lilac tone and whitewashed not with paint, but with gold; the table, the mountain and the chambers were repainted again... Only the faces remained, by which it was possible to judge that this icon was ancient, but they were shaded in the shadows with brown oil paint. |
When V.P. Guryanov, having removed three layers of stratification, the last of which was made in the Palekh style, opened the author’s layer (as it turned out during the second restoration in 1919, in some places he did not reach it), both the restorer himself and eyewitnesses of his discovery experienced a real shock. Instead of the dark, “smoky” tones of the dark olive hue of faces and the restrained, severe brown-red range of clothes, so familiar to the eye of a connoisseur of ancient Russian icon painting of that time, bright sunny colors, transparent, truly “heavenly” clothes of angels, immediately reminiscent of Italian frescoes and icons of the XIV, in particular - the first half of the XV century.
| Icon in a riza | Mid 19th century - 1904 | 1904 | 1905-1919 | Current state |
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| Icon in the Godunov frame | Icon in 1904 with the salary just removed. The original painting is hidden under a layer of writing from the late 19th century. In the upper right corner against the background is a trial deletion of records made in 1904 (the head and shoulder of the right angel and the background with a slide). | Photo of "Trinity" after the completion of clearing Guryanov | Photograph of the "Trinity" after the renewal of Guryanov, under a continuous Guryanov entry. Guryanov's work was rated extremely low even by his contemporaries, and already in 1915 the researcher Sychev said that the restoration of Guryanov's monument, as it were, actually hid it from us. | During the restoration of 1919, in addition to Rublev's painting, which came down with great losses, numerous notes by Guryanov and notes from previous centuries were left. The picturesque surface of the icon today is a combination of different layers of painting. |
Having removed the layers of late painting, Guryanov re-recorded the icon in accordance with his own ideas about how this icon should look (the restorers of the Silver Age were still very archaic). After that, the icon was returned to the iconostasis.
Researchers write about the cleaning and restoration of Guryanov, which later had to be liquidated: “Actually, restoration in the modern scientific understanding of this word can be called (but not without some reservations here) only the opening of the monument, carried out in 1918; all previous work on the "Trinity", in fact, were only its "renewals", not excluding the "restoration", which took place in 1904-1905 under the leadership of V.P. Guryanov. (...) There is no doubt that the restorers of the icon deliberately strengthened, in fact, its entire graphic-linear structure - with a rough forcing of the contours of figures, clothes, halos, and even with a clear intervention in the "holy of holies" - in the area of " personal letter”, where the author’s “inventory” of faces and the “drawing” of their features (already quite schematically reproduced by the later renovations of the 16th-19th centuries), which were not completely cleaned up and probably poorly preserved, were literally crumpled and absorbed by the harsh graphics of V.P. Guryanov and his assistants."
1918 clearing
Icon in the process of clearing 1918-19. On the clothes of the angel on the right, a light stripe of the filmed Guryanovsky recording is visible.
As soon as the icon got back into the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral, it quickly darkened again, and it had to be opened again. In 1918, under the leadership of Count Yuri Olsufiev, a new restoration of the icon began. This disclosure was initiated and carried out on the instructions of the Commission for the Disclosure of Ancient Painting in Russia, which included such prominent figures of Russian culture as I. E. Grabar, A. I. Anisimov, A. V. Grishchenko, K. K. Romanov, and the Commission for the Protection of Art Monuments of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (Yu. A. Olsufiev, P. A. Florensky, P. N. Kapterev). Restoration work was carried out from November 28, 1918 to January 2, 1919 by I. I. Suslov, V. A. Tyulin and G. O. Chirikov. All successive stages of the disclosure of the "Trinity" found a very detailed reflection in the restoration "Diary". On the basis of the records in it, as well as, probably, his personal observations, Yu. A. Olsufiev much later, already in 1925, compiled a consolidated “Protocol No. 1” (all these documents were preserved in the archives of the State Tretyakov Gallery and were published in the article Malkov in the "Museum").
| Wednesday, November 14 (27), 1918 G. O. Chirikov cleared the face of the left angel. Part of the left cheek along the edge, from the eyebrow to the end of the nose, turned out to be lost and repaired. Chinka stopped. The entire strand of hair, falling from the left side, has also been lost and mended. Part of the contour, thin and wavy, has been preserved. Chinka left. Lost along the edge of the hair at the top of the curly coufure and a blue ribbon among the curls above the forehead. The hair at the top of the head was slicked back partly in 1905, partly earlier; the chink is left (...) In the evening, G.O. Chirikov, I.I. Suslov and V.A. Tyulin cleared the golden background of the icon and halos of angels. The gold is largely lost, as are the rumors of the angels, of which only the earl remains. Only parts of some letters survived from the cinnabar inscription. Against the background, in some places, a new putty was found (“Restoration Diary)” . |
Problems with the safety of the "Trinity" began immediately after its disclosure in 1918-19. Twice a year, in spring and autumn, during the increase in humidity in the Trinity Cathedral, the icon was transferred to the so-called First Icon Store, or chamber. Such changes in the temperature and humidity regime could not but affect her condition.
Icon in the museum
A crack passes through the face of the right angel
Quotes from the "Transcript of the extended restoration meeting at the State Tretyakov Gallery on the issue of Rublev's Trinity":
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On November 10, 2008, a meeting of the extended restoration council was held, at which the state of preservation of the icon was discussed and at which the question was raised about the possibility of strengthening the foundation of the icon. At this Council, it was decided that in no case should one interfere with the established, stable state of the monument. On the back, it was decided to put beacons to monitor the state of the base.
Request for transportation of the icon to the Lavra
On November 17, 2008, another extended restoration meeting was held at the State Tretyakov Gallery, after which, on September 19, 2008, senior researcher of the Tretyakov Gallery Levon Nersesyan announced in his blog about the request of Patriarch Alexy II to provide the "Trinity" of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra for three days to participate in church holiday in the summer of 2009. Moving the icon to the Lavra, staying for three days in the microclimate of the cathedral, among candles, incense and believers, and then transporting it back to the State Tretyakov Gallery, according to museum experts, can destroy it. The information published by Nersesyan had a great public outcry and caused a lot of publications in the media. The final decision has not been made, the only employees who are in favor of providing the icon are the director of the Tretyakov Gallery and its main curator, while most other employees who are not so high officials, as well as art critics and scientists working in other institutions, strongly oppose , and accuse the director and curator of intending to commit a "malfeasance" that will lead to the loss of the national treasure.
At the moment, the "Trinity" is stored in the hall of ancient Russian painting of the Tretyakov Gallery, in a special glass case, which maintains constant humidity and temperature, and which protects the icon from any external influences.
On the feast of the Trinity of 2009, after an active discussion in the press and a letter to the president, signed by many cultural figures and ordinary citizens, and also, most likely, under the influence of other factors, the icon remained in the State Tretyakov Gallery and, as usual, was moved to the church at the museum , from where it was later safely delivered back to its place in the exposition.
The artistic value of the icon, its popularity and significance for world culture
Participation in exhibitions
Notes
- Rublev's "Trinity" page on the website of the Tretyakov Gallery. Archived
- "Transcript of the Extended Restoration Meeting at the State Tretyakov Gallery on Rublev's "Trinity" November 17, 2008". Archived from the original on February 26, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2008.
- Lazarev V. N. Russian icon painting from its origins to the beginning of the 16th century. Chapter VI. Moscow school. VI.15. "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev. Archived from the original on February 26, 2012. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
- "Holy Trinity" by Andrei Rublev. - Description, history of the icon. Archived from the original on August 25, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
- Audio tour of the Tretyakov Gallery // "Trinity" by Rublev. Text by L. Nersesyan
- Lazarev V.N. Andrei Rublev and his school. M., 1966. pp. 61-62
- Salary "Trinity". - Portal "Culture of Russia". Archived from the original on February 26, 2012. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
- A. Nikitin. The Riddle of Rublev's Trinity. (First publication: Nikitin A. Who wrote Rublev's Trinity? // NiR, 1989, No. 8-9.)
- Stoglav. Ed. D. E. Kozhanchikova. SPb., 1863, p. 128
- “The Reverend Father Andrei of Radonezh, an icon painter, nicknamed Rublev, painted many holy icons, all miraculous. Yako, however, writes about him in Stoglav the marvelous Saint Macarius Metropolitan, that from his letter he painted icons, and not with his own intent. And before that, he lived in obedience to the Reverend Father Nikon of Radonezh. He ordered with him an image to write the Holy Trinity in praise of his father, St. Sergius the Wonderworker.<...>The Reverend Father Daniel, his companion, an icon painter, called Black, painted many miraculous holy icons with him, everywhere he is inseparable. And here, at the time of his death, he came to Moscow to the monastery of the Spassky and the venerable father Andronicus and Savva, and painted the church with a wall letter and icons by invoking hegumen Alexander, a disciple of the holy Andronicus, and themselves were honored with that reverence in the Lord, as if he writes about them in the life of Saint Nikon "
- Holy Trinity Andrei Rublev. Description, history of the icon
- Life of Sergius in the version of Pachomius Logothetes. Section "The Tale of the Change of the Relics of St. Sergius") "With the help of the Christ-loving princes, with faith and love for the saint, the saint's constant disciple, Nikon, burning in spirit to the green feat, touching with the brothers with desire from the soul, if it were to be accomplished with his stomach, if it was begun , consubstantial to the holy temple of the Trinity in praise of his father, hedgehog and be the prayers of the holy father soon at his request, the church was more, as if with a rech, red erected and decorated with wonderful signing and all sorts of goodness. The otchalyubivago, but the foreshadowed child of the everlasting hand is stretched out to the structure more than all beyash. We need more and more to remember and miraculously, as if the desire of the Reverend Father Rector Nikon was fulfilled. Begged from him by the virtuous old men and painters, Danil and Andrei, who were foreshadowed, spiritually brotherhood and self-love have become great. And as if you had decorated this church with the signing at the end of your God-pleasing life of the blessed, and so you went to the Lord in sight with each other in spiritual union, as if it were here too.