Two years after its transfer in June 2024 to the Cathedral of the Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius, the icon of the Trinity by Andrei Rublev (1360-1430) had to be taken down and transferred to the restoration workshops for examination. The climate control device apparently suffered a malfunction, which led to its control and adjustment.
The 15th century painting, one of the most famous in Russia, depicts the hospitality of Abraham, a scene from the Old Testament illustrating the Trinity. Made in tempera on three assembled wooden panels, it depicts three haloed angels with identical faces, seated around a table during their visit to Abraham. According to an anonymous source cited by the media Ekhothe humidity would have reached 80%, compared to the 50 to 55% required for the conservation of the work.
Probably made in the 1420s for the Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius, its exact dating and initial location remain debated. It was in 1929 that it entered the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, following the confiscation and nationalization of religious property by the Stalin regime. Since the post-Soviet years, the Russian Orthodox Church has continued to demand the return of the icon, to which the museum management has firmly opposed, considering its state of conservation too precarious to be able to be moved.
In July 2022, the Lavra Cathedral managed to obtain the Trinity loan on the occasion of the celebration of 600 years since the discovery of the relics of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, despite the opposition of the director of the Tretyakov Gallery, Zelfira Tegulova, who then alerted the Ministry of Culture of the risk of damage. When the work returned to Moscow two days later, the museum’s restorers noted 61 areas of loss of adhesion of the pictorial layer.
In May 2023, Vladimir Putin decided to transfer the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church. Following the announcement, the museum’s scientific teams expressed their opposition to the transfer, and received the support of Leonid Kalinin, chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Expert Council for Art and Restoration. On May 26, 2023, just a few days after he spoke on the subject, Kalinin was dismissed from his position by Patriarch Kirill. In June 2024, the icon is transported in a climate capsule to the cathedral, where it is placed in a specially designed display case to reproduce the desired conservation conditions.
Legally, the Tretyakov Gallery still has scientific responsibility for the painting, which allows it to ensure its maintenance via a strict protocol. Every year, the work is subject to a thorough examination, and additional checks are carried out every 3 months. The cathedral is thus the custodian of the painting which is loaned to it as part of a “free provision”for a renewable period of 49 years.
During the vespers ceremony on July 17, 2022, a few months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill explained in a speech that the Trinity by Andreï Rublev, loaned for the occasion, echoed a time when “Russia found itself in great danger from internal and external enemies and was rallying to become a great power in the future”.
