In the 1914 panel “Young Men, Successors, ” Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich depicted three young men with inspired faces. Based on the history of the formation of Christianity in Russia, it can be assumed that the stories about real-life personalities were behind the images created by the artist.
Apparently, the master executed the images of Princes Boris and Gleb, the sons of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich. They died in the course of internecine strife that began immediately after the death of their father. The third figure may be the boy Bartholomew, who became a monk with the name Sergius. He became St. Sergius of Radonezh, one of the leading church figures of Russia in the 14th century, the founder of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow, a revered saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In the images of the youths, Nicholas Roerich embodied the idea of accepting, preserving and transmitting spiritual traditions, which is symbolized in the artwork by a stylized flower of the Tree of Life. The artist created four panels called “Young Men, Successors.” Compositionally, they are built on the same principle.
On two of the panels, one of the youths holds a flower from the Tree of Life in his hands, on the other two he stretches out his arms to it. The images of young men are filled with inner concentration and imbued with a sense of harmony. Nicholas Konstantinovich attached great importance to the symbolism of color. Judging by the studies, the coloristic solution of the chapel murals was planned to be executed in the spirit of ancient Russian iconographic traditions.
