Icon of the Old Testament Trinity

Replica Icon of the Old Testament Trinity or The Hospitality of Abraham, is a famous medieval Russian icon, painted by Andrei Rublev (c. 1360-70 - c. 1430)

25 cm wide
32 cm long
2cm high
743 grams

The Holy Trinity In Christianity it refers to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father represents the all-encompassing truth; the Son represents the way, He has shown people how to come to the Father (the truth) and the Holy Spirit represents the faith and commitment to arrive at the truth. The three together give humanity happiness, the realization that everything lives in harmony and that we can only be happy if we live in harmony. In harmony with oneself, in harmony with fellow man and in harmony with nature.

The icon represents a story from the Old Testament (Genesis 18:1-15), where Abraham receives three mysterious visitors, with whom he converses as with one person. The three figures are interpreted on the icon as a prefiguration of the Holy Trinity. The 'three young men' - depicted here as three angels - hold a traveling staff in their left hand, an attribute of travelers; the middle one carries the typical one Pantocrator colors and would therefore represent Christ. The house in the background on the left represents Abraham's tent, the rocks on the right are the symbol of the desert, the tree in the middle is the oak of Mamre, the place where the story takes place. Icons often show the contrast between the civilized human world (buildings) and rough nature (rocks). The tree is then the symbol of the Bible. The chalice on the table is a prefiguration of the Eucharist.

The composition is more complicated than it seems at first glance and is full of hidden symbols. The three 'angels' are painted in such a way that they fit into one circle , symbol of perfection. Various geometric figures could then be fitted into this circle:

• An triangle , which refers to the Trinity
• An six-pointed "David's" star , symbol of the chosen people and a reference to it Old Testament
• An five-pointed star , the star of Bethlehem, which symbolizes and refers to the birth of the Savior New Testament

Rublev painted the icon in Sergei Possad, where he was a monk. In 1929 the original was transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and replaced by a copy.