A strange Trinity
Now look at the upper part of the painting. The risen Christ presents his cross to the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Father is shown, as was common at the time, as an old man wearing the papal tiara. More surprisingly, the Holy Spirit also has human form and likewise wears the tiara.
Yet this way of representing the Spirit had already been condemned by the Church. After the Council of Trent in the 16th century, only the dove, mentioned in the Gospels at the baptism of Christ, was to be used.
Painted at least a century later, the Dinant picture thus shows how long older images could survive after new rules had been introduced.