The Trinity (c. 1620): Art, History and Details

The Trinity (c. 1620) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hendrik van Balen (Flemish, 1575–1632).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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 tiara, intended to emphasize the pope’s role as God’s true representative on earth. Encircling the figures of the Trinity are angels holding the instruments of Christ’s Passion. On the clasp of God’s elaborate cape is a small figure of Saint Barbara, perhaps a clue to the original location of the work in a chapel dedicated to her.

Object facts

• Title: The Trinity
• Date: c. 1620
• Creator attribution: Hendrik van Balen (Flemish, 1575–1632)
• Culture: Flanders
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 134 x 107 x 7 cm (52 3/4 x 42 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 114.6 x 73.9 cm (45 1/8 x 29 1/8 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Flemish
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1996.26

A detail from the museum

The crown worn by God in this painting resembles a papal tiara, last used by a Catholic pope in 1964.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Konrad O. Bernheimer, Ltd., painting information sheet, in CMA curatorial file.
• Werche, Bettina. Hendrick van Balen: 1575-1632 : ein Antwerpener Kabinettbildmaler der Rubenszeit. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2004.
• Alex Wengraf, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 11, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.