Crucifixion (van Dyck) delta' symbolising the Holy Trinity. Crucifixion (van Dyck) The Crucifixion is an oil on canvas painting by Anthony van Dyck, produced around 1630. It is 2.51 m high. It was originally commissioned as the high altar-piece in the convent of the Récollets in Lille during van Dyck's second Antwerp period, between his return from Italy in 1627 and his departure for London in 1632. It returned to a theme he had already painted around 1617-19 during his first Antwerp period, when he was still a studio-assistant to Rubens - this was "Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary, St John and St
Anthony van Dyck portrait tradition—of painters such as William Dobson, Robert Walker and Isaac Fuller—into what certainly became elegant blandness in the hands of many of van Dyck's successors, like Lely or Kneller. The conventional view has always been more favourable: "When Van Dyck came hither he brought Face-Painting to us; ever since which time ... England has excel'd all the World in that great Branch of the Art’ (Jonathan Richardson: "An Essay on the Theory of Painting", 1715, 41). Thomas Gainsborough is reported to have said on his deathbed "We are all going to heaven, and Van Dyck is of the Company."