1620
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
The Trinity is a 1620 unspecified by Hendrick van Balen the Elder, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see three figures stacked in clouds: God the Father in gold, Christ on the cross, and a dove above them. Angels with trumpets and saints kneel around the edges. This painting was made in Antwerp during the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church pushed back against Protestant ideas. Artists were asked to create bold, clear images that taught church teachings. Van Balen’s bright colors and crowded scene do exactly that—they make the holy story feel real and close. To see how other artists handled the same subject, look up Flanders.
This vividly colored altarpiece was made in Antwerp, the center of religious learning in Catholic Flanders. In the mid-1500s when the Catholic Church mounted a defense against the spread of Protestant reforms, known as the Counter-Reformation, it encouraged the production of religious images that promoted Catholic doctrine, offering opportunities for artists like Rubens, Van Dyck, and Van Balen. Van Balen’s painting depicts the traditional theme of the Trinity, with God the Father holding the dead Christ and the dove of the Holy Spirit hovering above. Unusually, God wears the purple papal…
The crown worn by God in this painting resembles a papal tiara, last used by a Catholic pope in 1964.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Hendrick van Balen or Hendrick van Balen I (c. 1573–1575 – 17 July 1632) was a Flemish Baroque painter and stained glass designer. Hendrick van Balen specialised in small cabinet pictures often painted on a copper…
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