Sergei Bulgakov

Among some of the most fascinating and prized items owned by the State Tretyakov Gallery is Mikhail Nesterov’s famous double portrait of the philosophers Pavel Florensky (1882-1937) and Sergei Bulgakov[1] (1871-1944). Painted in 1917 and showing the two men in Sergiev Posad, for many years “The Philosophers” was consigned to storage; yet now, once again, it forms part of the Tretyakov Gallery’s display as a vital element of Nesterov’s creative and spiritual development. Deacon Sergiy Trubachev’s important article[2], written to mark Florensky’s the 100th anniversary of Florensky’s birth and examining this very painting, focuses in particular on its spiritual merit. Deacon Trubachev’s study offered a convenient starting point for this article.