The Trinity icon, credited to Andrey Rublev, received 61 “significant changes” as a result of being sent to Divine Liturgy at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad in July. Art critic Ksenia Korobeynikova wrote about this in her telegram channel with reference to the minutes of the meeting of the extended restoration council of the Tretyakov Gallery that she had at her disposal.
Due to the fact that the temple did not have the necessary climatic conditions, the icon experienced a “sharp difference in temperature and humidity“. This, in particular, led to “numerous peeling of the paint layer.”
The commission concluded that the consequences of the transfer were “serious and could threaten the existence of an ancient and fragile monument.”
In the near future, “Trinity” will not be exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery. She will be placed in a depository “until her condition stabilizes.”
“Trinity” taken out of the Tretyakov Gallery July 16 for the service in honor of the 600th anniversary of the acquisition of the relics of Sergius of Radonezh. It happened on the initiative Patriarch Kirill.
@courierofculture, 09/28/2022 10:15 AM: 61 (!) A significant change befell the “Trinity” attributed to Andrei Rublev after the tour from the Tretyakov Gallery to the Trinity-Sergeev Lavra. Experts believe that this is just the beginning. Further more. The consequences are “serious and could threaten the existence of an ancient and fragile monument.” This is the verdict of the extended restoration council. Thanks to kind people, we had at our disposal the protocol (I am publishing part of it) of the meeting. What we have in the bottom line – in quotes:
“An experiment was performed on an ancient monument.”
“A non-climatic collapsible display case with the possibility of adjusting humidity was installed in the temple (meaning the Trinity Cathedral, -“ ku-ku ”).
“There are no necessary climatic conditions in the temple.” […]
”Five sections are emergency and need to be strengthened.”
”Numerous peeling of the paint layer threatens with losses and needs urgent conservation.” […]
The “Holy Trinity” is indefinitely in storage – this is generally a tragedy. One of the central monuments of world significance has been excluded from the exposition of the central museum of Russian art, and it is not known when all this will end.”
“It is necessary to adopt decisions at the legislative level that secure a special status for a number of unique monuments that are part of the State Museum Fund, the external issue of which should be prohibited.” — Inset K.ru
zona.media, 07/16/2022, Andrei Rublev’s “Trinity” was taken from the Tretyakov Gallery to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The icon was provided for worship, despite the protests of the restorers”: In 2008, a scandal erupted around Andrei Rublev’s icon “Trinity”, also associated with an attempt to transport it to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra for three days for worship. With a request to transfer a work of art for temporary use by the Russian Orthodox Church, the then Tretyakov Gallery was Patriarch Alexy II. Then, too, gallery staff and art historians sharply opposed. […]
“The patriarch asked for an icon for only three days – for the feast of the Trinity. Even prisoners for good behavior are allowed to go home for a while. Perhaps, for a hundred years of good behavior, this icon deserved at least three days of vacation home, and then back to prison, ” wrote in a column for RIA Novosti, the press secretary of the Moscow Patriarchy, Vladimir Vigilyansky. Art critics and employees of the Tretyakov Gallery in response spokethat the icon cannot be put at risk. As a result, Rublev’s “Trinity” then remained in the museum.
Until 1917, the icon was kept in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. It was handed over to the Tretyakov Gallery in 1929. Since then, the icon has left the walls of the museum only once, when at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War it was evacuated to Novosibirsk. In the autumn of 1998, the Tretyakov Gallery made a decision about the possibility of transferring the icon to the church-museum of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi during the celebration of the Holy Trinity. Since then, every year the icon has been carried by hand in a special frame through the interior of the gallery to the temple located on the territory of the museum. At this time, the “Trinity” is available to believers during the service. — Inset K.ru
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© meduza07/22/2022, “The Holy One can give instructions to officials, like the emperor himself”, Photo: via meduza
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The Trinity icon, attributed to Andrei Rublev, has left the walls of the Tretyakov Gallery for only the second time in more than 100 years. On July 16, the icon was taken out of the museum for worship in honor of the 600th anniversary of finding the relics of Sergius of Radonezh in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. This happened at the initiative of Patriarch Kirill: he held a festive service next to the 700-year-old cultural monument. About why the Russian Orthodox Church and officials needed this and why the museum workers could not stop them, Meduza asked Ksenia Korobeinikova, an art historian and author of the Ku-Ku telegram channel about cultural insiders, to tell.
Meduza obtained an internal document from the Tretyakov Gallery, a memorandum addressed to the museum’s acting director Rinat Shigapov, drawn up by members of the extended restoration council on July 15. From this document it follows that the transportation of the “Trinity” took place with critical violations. The icon was transported and installed not in special climatic capsules, but in ordinary showcases. Before sending the icon, the gallery staff, due to lack of time, supplied these showcases with the necessary equipment and sensors.
The company that transported the icon allegedly did not give the gallery staff the opportunity to finally inspect the showcase in which the icon was to be exhibited in the Lavra. At an extended meeting in the Tretyakov Gallery, museum workers learned from representatives of the courier company that a showcase in a lavra would not provide the desired temperature and humidity conditions, a source at the gallery told Meduza. Humidity and temperature in the cathedral itself also did not meet the standards, gallery staff told Shigapov in a memorandum.
In addition, the glass fastenings in the cathedral showcase were weak, it itself was not stable, and it was not safe to open it with the icon inside: during installation, the Trinity could be hurt and damaged. According to Meduza’s source in the gallery, at the time the icon was transported on July 16, the situation with the transport equipment had not changed.
“This year, at my request to the authorities, our holiday is adorned with the presence in this holy church of the miraculous image of the Holy Trinity, written by the Monk Andrei Rublev, – said the patriarch in a sermon. – This is the great shrine of our land, it connects us with the time of St. Sergius, with the very time when our Russia, which was in danger from external and internal enemies, concentrated in order to become a great power in the future. And we know that’s what happened.”
In response to the question why the patriarch chose the “Trinity” attributed to Rublev, and not the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which is considered miraculous, Meduza’s interlocutor in the patriarchate referred to the importance of PR and ideology issues for the ROC.
What other icons left museums
Other icons that the ROC wanted to receive were less fortunate. For example, in 1992, the Bogolyubskaya Icon of the Mother of God was transferred from the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve to the Knyaginin Monastery in Vladimir. Despite the special capsule in which it was located, after 17 years the icon ended up on the table of the restorers of the same Vladimir-Suzdal Museum, almost completely lost paint layer. For almost 15 years, the Bogolyubskaya Icon of the Mother of God has been there, it is no longer available to the public.
Another similar incident occurred in 2009. Businessman and race car driver Sergei Shmakov managed to get from the Russian Museum an icon of Our Lady of Toropetskaya of the 14th century for the temple in the cottage village “Prince’s Lake” on New Riga, built by his company. The museum has lost one of its most valuable ancient Russian exhibits, and its visitors – the most important monument of the era.
At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Lavra have at their disposal lists (a list is a reproduction of an icon, but not a thorough one. A thorough reproduction is a copy, – approx. Meduza) of various icons, including the Trinity. One of them was created in 1600 by order of Tsar Boris Godunov. The second copy was painted in 1926-1928 by the restorers Pavel Baranov and Grigory Chirikov for the famous international restoration exhibition of icons of 1929-1933. According to Orthodox canons, consecrated copies or lists are equivalent to icons of ancient writing.
Why the patriarch needed the original, the interlocutor from the patriarchy explains:
His Holiness counted on the presence of the first person at the significant service. Since an unequivocal refusal came a month ago, an equivalent replacement for museum dignity was found. So icons can be not only life-giving, but also politically speaking.
Gallery director Zelfira Tregulova was on vacation when the icon was handed over to the Trinity Cathedral, sources at the gallery told Meduza, just like when the Tretyakov Gallery closed exhibitions in April. Issues related to the icon were de jure decided by Tregulova’s deputy for construction, Rinat Shigapov, who became acting interim.
July 17th the press service of the gallery saidthat “the request of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church to provide an icon for worship in the Lavra, timed to coincide with the 600th anniversary of the acquisition of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh”, was granted, the transportation of the “Trinity” took place “with all the necessary precautions”, and the icon was in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra placed “in a capsule specially created for this purpose, which maintains the climate familiar to it.” July 19 museum reported about the return of the icon:
The icon “Holy Trinity” by St. Andrei Rublev returned to the gallery in the usual and necessary storage conditions. Now restorers are studying it; no visible signs of deterioration in the condition of this most important work of ancient Russian art have been identified. After a detailed and comprehensive examination of the icon, a decision will be made on the timing of the return of the “Trinity” to its usual place in the exposition.
After the precedent with the Trinity on July 20, Sergei Gavrilov, chairman of the Duma Committee on Property, Land and Property Relations, suggested that parliamentarians think about mechanism for transferring icons to churchesowned by the state. “It is important to understand that icons are objects of worship, they are not works of art in the classical sense. This is part of our religious worldview,” Gavrilov stressed.
“In 1904, the Lavra itself gave the icon to museum workers in order to save it,” one of the directors of the federal museum, which houses icons, among other things, told Meduza. Why did the priests of the early 20th century understand this need, but not at the beginning of the 21st century? What are we, barbarians, and outside the window is the Middle Ages?! Maybe it’s the pride that we all fell into? This is a unique iconography, a unique monument. How it was possible to risk its safety – I’ll never know. I would refuse and resign. Now it is not known how the church will behave after this: it is insatiable. If such, it would seem, blocks like Tregulova could not resist, then what about us, the rest, maybe then? .. ”
The Ministry of Culture, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the State Tretyakov Gallery had not responded to Meduza’s inquiries as of press time.
