Trinity
Iconography: Hospitality of Abraham’s (The Old Testament Trinity)
Date: XVI century. The second half of the 16th c.
Origin: From the Church of the Savior.
Material: Wood, tempera
Dimensions: height 135 cm, width 98 cm
This Holy Trinity image is painted in line with the iconographic pattern represented on Andrei Rublyov icons but does not imitate it (in particular, the figures of the angels don’t constitute an ideal circle, while their heads are almost on the same level). Among the features indicating a deviation from the Rublyov iconography are the lack of clavus on the chiton of the central angel, three bowls instead of one, and the breads, spoons and knives on the table, certain details suggest association with the iconographic tradition of the second half of the 16th century. These are luxurious chambers crowned with a hint roof and frontons, a complex form of the dinner with an arcade in the foundation, the angels’ wings, represented three-dimensionally and with the rolled edges, and the positioning of the feet of the right and the left angels (their feet stand on the pedestal on the same level, not at different height, like on Rublyov’s icons). A fairly rare motif is an image of the Mamre oak with the five-pointed star-shaped crown right above the figure of the central angel.
General view