Religious Art of Saint Joseph Church The Holy Trinity Of the Old Testament By Andrei Rublev (1260-1430) The icon of the Trinity was painted around 1410 by Andrei Rublev It depicts the three angels who visited Abraham at the Oak of Mamre - . but is often interpreted as an icon of the Trinity. It is sometimes called the icon of the Old Testament Trinity. The image is full of symbolism - designed to take the viewer into the Mystery of the Trinity. Behind the figure is a tree. This could be the oak tree at Mamre under which the three angelic visitors rested. The hospitality of Abraham and Sarah was rewarded in the gift of a son. What does this tell us of the importance of hospitality? The tree may also represent the Cross - the tree on which our Saviour died. The tree of death which becomes the tree of eternal life - lost to humanity by the disobedience of Adam and Eve - restored to us by the obedience of Jesus. Reflect on the paradox of the Cross - the place where death and life confront each other - where death gives way to resurrection - and eternal life. It may also be the tree of life in Revelation bearing twelve kinds of fruit one for each month of the year and the leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations... What is the promise here - waiting to be fulfilled? The Christ figure in turn inclines towards the figure on the left - . and we are drawn to gaze there too. Some general thoughts to get you started... The three faces are identical... how might this help us to understand the nature of the Trinity? The figures can be enclosed in a circle What might this tell us about the life of the Trinity? All the figures wear a blue garment - the color of the heavens... but each wears something that speaks of Their own identity A figure at rest within Itself. The blue garment almost hidden by a shimmering - ethereal robe. - The Father - The One who is Creator who cannot be seen by His human creatures. Both hands clasp the staff. All authority in heaven and on earth belong to the Father. What kind of authority do you find in the figure in the icon? Behind the figure is a house the dwelling place of God. "In my Father's House are many mansions - I go to prepare a place for you..." What is the promise for you in these words of Jesus? "Those who love Me will keep My word and My Father will love them - and we will come to them and make our home with them". What is Jesus promising here? The figure wears the blue of divinity. The brown garment speaks of the earth - of His humanity. The gold stripe speaks of kingship. - The Christ - Reflect on the form of kingship being represented here... The Christ figure rests two fingers on the table - . laying onto it His divine and His human nature. He points to a cup filled with wine... What does this represent? Behind the figure is a tree. This could be the oak tree at Mamre under which the three angelic visitors rested. The hospitality of Abraham and Sarah was rewarded in the gift of a son. What does this tell us of the importance of hospitality? The tree may also represent the Cross - the tree on which our Saviour died. The tree of death which becomes the tree of eternal life - lost to humanity by the disobedience of Adam and Eve - restored to us by the obedience of Jesus. Reflect on the paradox of the Cross - the place where death and life confront each other - where death gives way to resurrection - and eternal life. It may also be the tree of life in Revelation bearing twelve kinds of fruit one for each month of the year and the leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations... What is the promise here - waiting to be fulfilled? The Christ figure in turn inclines towards the figure on the left - and we are drawn to gaze there too. - A blue robe speaking of divinity - - A green robe representing new life - - The Spirit - If you can, spend time gazing at the newly unfurled leaves against a blue sky. (If the season is not appropriate - live on the memory!) Reflect on the link between what you see and the figure in the icon. The Spirit touches the table - earthing the divine life of God. Reflect on that touch and the words of invocation: "Lord, You are holy indeed, the fountain of all holiness. Let Your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy...." Reflect on that touch and its meaning for the life of the world... Behind the figure is a mountain. Mountains are places where people often encountered God - places where heaven and earth seem to touch. Moses met God on mountains. Jesus was transfigured whilst in prayer on a mountain. Reflect on your own "mountain top" experiences - times when you have felt very close to God - when you have felt transfigured and filled with the Spirit. (These need not necessarily have taken place on mountain tops!) Elijah could not find God in the earthquake - the wind - the fire on the mountain - but in the gentle breeze which carried the voice of God deep into his being. When have you been aware of the presence of the dynamic stillness which is the Spirit within you? The Spirit inclines - drawing our gaze to the central figure - representing Christ. The Icon of the Holy Trinity. In the medieval Russia, all newly-painted icons were coated with a layer of a special drying oil to protect the painting against mechanical damage and impart greater intensity to the colors. Unfortunately, with time oil darkened, thereby darkening the initial colors of icons and eventually turning absolutely black. For this reason, the icon had to be renewed, and the Trinity was painted over with fresh paints within its faintly discernible contours. This procedure was repeated several times. Towards the turn of the twentieth century there remained nothing of Rublev's masterpiece apart from the rapturous recollections of antiquity. The first attempt to remove later accretions from the fifteenth-century icon was made in 1905. At the end of 1918 restoration work was continued, the surround was removed and it is only since then that the icon's appearance has become close to the original. We say "close to" because in these long five centuries the icon's painting turned out to be damaged: the gold background was lost, the tree was painted anew within the old contours, the top layers of paint were washed off, even the ground was occasionally disturbed and cracks appeared, the outlines of the Angels' heads were partly altered. All this notwithstanding, even in its present state the Trinity remains one of the best extant Russian icons. The subject of the icon is based on the Biblical story about the visit by three Angels to the Prophet Abraham and his wife Sarah. According to the theological interpretations whose authors associated the Old Testament events with events of the New Testament, these Angels were the three Persons of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. Though revealing direct iconographic affinity with this kind of representations, the Trinity as painted by Rublev, has its own features which carry a new quality and a new content. In Rublev's icon we observe for the first time all the three Angels shown equal. This icon alone conformed to the strict rules of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. Meantime, some historians of art believe that Rublev expressed in the icon the need for and benefit of love, of a union based on the trust of one individual in another. Whereas Rublev's Trinity is void of any noticeable energy of earthly life, of corporeality of forms and external manifestations of love, equally absent from it is that cold soaring of the spirit, so remote from humans. The image determines the subtle struck balance between soul and spirit, the corporeal and the imponderable, endless and immortal sojourn in the heavens. When speaking of Rublev's work, different authors describe the Trinity's Angels as quiet, gentle, anxious, sorrowful, and the mood permeating the icon as detached, meditative, contemplative, intimate. Depicting the Trinity as an indivisible essence without beginning and without end, infinite and eternal, Rublev chose repetitive light and airy movement as the leitmotif of the composition. The Angels' attitudes and meaningful gestures, their inclinations are amazing in their dissimilarity while being almost identical, so that the icon leaves the clear impression of a seemingly many-voice talk. It is not fortuitous that we perceive Andrei Rublev's Trinity as the highest achievement of Russian art. Crowning a long artistic career of a single master, it is also an embodiment of the creative thought of several generations. Just as any other medieval artist, Rublev highly valued tradition and collective effort. All the best features of early fifteenth-century Russian culture merged in the Trinity : a form of philosophical generalization, outwordly abstract, but with an amazingly concrete content, a capacity to express through iconographic images the national character, and artistic skills attaining to the pinnacles of world art. Many scholars consider Rublev's Trinity the most perfect of all Russian icons and perhaps the most perfect of all the icons ever painted. The work was created for the abbot of the Trinity Monastery, Nikon of Radonezh, a disciple of the famous Sergius, one of the leaders of the monastic revival in the 14th-century Russia.