The Trinity, c.1620 (oil on wood)

This altarpiece, painted with luminous pastel colors, was made in Antwerp, the center of religious learning in Catholic Flanders. The reform movement within the Catholic church, known as the Counter Reformation, encouraged the production of didactic religious images, with the result that Antwerp painters such as Rubens, van Dyck, as well as Hendrik Van Balen were granted large numbers of commissions. Depictions of the Trinity showing God the Father holding the dead Christ with the dove of the Holy Spirit hovering above had been very popular through-out Europe between 1300 and 1500, but became rare in the 1600s. In this work, the artist conformed to the Counter Reformation demand that God the Father wear the purple tiara of the Pope. The angels, with their multi-colored wings of various designs, hold the instruments of Christ's Passion. On the clasp of God the Father's elaborate cape is a small figure of Saint Barbara, which may be a clue to the original location of the work, perhaps a chapel dedicated to the saint.