[Zoom Service] An Analysis of the Famous 15th Century Russian Icon “Old Testament Trinity” (also known as “The Hospitality of Abraham”) by St. Andrei Rublev

Leslie Howard, lifelong student of Orthodox iconography, will speak on the topic, An Analysis of the Famous 15th Century Russian Icon “Old Testament Trinity.”  In Christian doctrine, the Holy Trinity is the fount and source of being, life, and salvation.  In the Orthodox Church, worship begins and ends with the words, “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” From Holy Scripture’s account of the creation in Genesis 1, it is the Holy Trinity who said, “Let us make man in our image.”  One of the foremost and most famous of Orthodox iconographic imagery of the Holy Trinity is that of the 15th century Russian painter Andrei Rublev, called Troitsa. The icon is based on the story from the Book of Genesis, chapter 18 called Abraham and Sarah’s Hospitality, or just the Hospitality of Abraham.

Leslie Howard attended Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) where he read History and English with subsidiary Spanish, and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Distinction.  He has worked variously as a History Teacher at a London school and as a Civil Servant with the UK Department of Health and Social Security.  Leslie’s main professional interests however lay in History and the Arts and he subsequently qualified as an official Guide to the Royal Borough of Greenwich in South-East London, conducting scheduled tours within the World Heritage site.  He was then employed by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich as a Guide for pre-arranged groups at the National Maritime Museum, the Old Royal Observatory and the Queen’s House.  He became interested in Byzantine and Russian Orthodox religious architecture and iconography in his teens, visited the then Soviet Union in 1968, and has studied these subjects intensively over the years.