A transcript emerged this week detailing objections from State Tretyakov Gallery restorers to Andrei Rublev’s 15th-century transfer Trinity icon of the Russian Orthodox Church. They cite the “complex and unstable state” of Russia’s most famous work of art “as well as the unpredictability of the continuing process of negative change” that resulted after it was briefly moved from the museum for the religious reverence last year.
The Russian Orthodox Church announced on May 15 that the icon is returned by President Vladimir Putin for permanent use by the church following a request for release for June 4 Pentecost services. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the decision, but it is shrouded in mystery since Putin made no comment and no decree was issued.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill I, who for years has been calling for the return of religious treasures that were seized and transferred to museums during the early years of Soviet rule, has been a strong supporter of the invasion Russian from Ukraine in 2022. . The return of the Trinity icon has been interpreted as a reward for loyalty and a superstitious insurance policy for the Kremlin in anticipation of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Also this week, a group of prominent art historians have sent an open letter to Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, another Putin’s staunch ally, expressing concern over the impending transfer, and many others have spoken out in Russian media.
The concerns of the restorers were expressed during a meeting of the Tretyakov Restoration Council held on May 15 in response to a question from the Ministry of Culture about the technical possibility of transferring the Trinity for Pentecost considering his condition.
According to a transcript of the meetingvacationers noted that five areas of damaged paint on the icon “required urgent restoration reinforcement” and a crack grew in the face and figure of one of the angels after he returned from several days to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius near Moscow last July.
Meanwhile, Elena Pronicheva, Tretyakov’s manager, whose father had been a senior Federal Security Service official under Putin, reportedly said that “the icon should in the short term be in a state of rest” in order to study the consequences. of his 2022 journey.
Archpriest Leonid Kalinin, who chairs the Expert Council on Art, Architecture and Restoration of the Russian Orthodox Church, asked restorers about climate control at the museum and during the transport of the icon , suggesting that they were responsible for not protecting her.
Earlier this week, Father Kalinin, who trained as an artist before becoming a priest, told RBC, a Russian news publication, that the Trinity must return to the Lavra Cathedral for which Rublev originally created it.
“The number of secular tourists, ours and those from abroad, visiting the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is approximately equal to the number of tourists visiting the Tretyakov Gallery,” he told the publication. “And he will be accessible to all, believers and non-believers alike, and being in his own home, in the atmosphere of his sacred temple, will be able to leave an even greater response in people’s hearts.”
Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said Wednesday that the Kremlin will “clarify the details” about the icon’s condition.
Mikhail Mindlin, director of the Andrei Rublev Central Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art in Moscow, offered to lend one of the museum’s copies of the Trinity at the church until a high-tech capsule is created to protect the original.
