Pieter Jansz Saenredam

Dutch, 1597 - 1665

Explore Selected Works

From floor level, we look toward a semicircular apse of a window-lined, light-filled church in this vertical painting. We are situated near the left wall, so we look along that wall into the apse, where there is a painting set in an elaborate frame over an altar. Soaring above us, the cream-white walls are divided into three zones, with arched openings at the bottom level, a narrow, shallow walkway above, and a row of tall, arched windows at the top. Vertical, rose-pink ribs between the windows in the top level converge just off the top center of the painting, in a curved, ribbed vault. Five tall windows line the semicircular apse, and two windows in the hall-like nave that we stand in extends to the right and off the edge of the composition. The sky beyond is powder blue with soft, billowing clouds. In the middle, clerestory level below the windows, two dark brown tapestries hang over two of the openings above the altar. There are square, brown pennants on long rods at each of the upper corners, and lighter brown shapes on the tapestries could be coats of arms. One tapestry is dated 1598 and the other 1621. The latter is inscribed with “ALBERTO AVSTRIA CO” and “PATRI PATRIAE SILVA DVCIS DICAT CONSECRAT.” On our level, the lowest level, more light-filled windows peek out from an outer wall that runs behind the arched openings. Stone sculptures of men and women, painted in the same creamy tones as the walls, stand on shallow platforms high on the face of the columns separating the openings. Along the floor, wooden choir stalls are tucked between the columns. The slate-gray floor has brick-red and putty-gray squares and rectangles set at irregular intervals. At the end of the apse, across from us, the stone-gray altar is covered with lace-edged cloths, four tall candlesticks, and two pots of flowers. Above it, the painting is about as tall as the windows around it. It is flanked by a pair of columns marbled with carnation pink and white to each side, and is set into brown and white architectural framework. The painting shows people and cattle gathered around an infant in a manger, with angels floating above. Near or above the choir stall to our left, a solitary, bald man wearing a voluminous white garment kneels facing away from us, looking toward the altar. The artist inscribed the painting with his name, date, and location as if written on the end of the choir stall to our left: “Ao 1646 pieter Saenredam dit geschildert de sintjans kerck in shartogenbosch.”
Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Cathedral of Saint John at 's-Hertogenbosch, 1646, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.33

Cathedral of Saint John at 's-Hertogenbosch

Pieter Jansz Saenredam · 1646 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.33

Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Interior of Saint Bavo's Church, Haarlem, 1635, pen and brown ink with gray wash and touches of red chalk over graphite on laid paper, squared in red chalk; laid down, The Woodner Collection, Gift of Dian Woodner, 2015.149.1

Interior of Saint Bavo's Church, Haarlem

Pieter Jansz Saenredam · 1635 · pen and brown ink with gray wash and touches of red chalk over graphite on laid paper, squared in red chalk; laid down ·  Accession ID  2015.149.1

A sand-colored church dominates the right two thirds of this canvas in this horizontal landscape. Low-lying blue-green mountains recede into the deep distance to our left. To our right, the building is made up of staggered, squared-off walls with rectangular windows set at seemingly irregular intervals. To the left and near the center of the composition, a circular building has a low domed roof. Plants growing on the building suggest that this is a ruin. A tall obelisk stands in front of the round portion of the church, to the left of center in the composition. We look into the arched ruins or construction of another building behind and above the church. A dirt road crosses diagonally from our left to right in front of the structure. A person wearing a red hat and purple robe sits inside a carriage drawn by two black horses. The driver wears a blue uniform, as do two men walking alongside the carriage.
Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Church of Santa Maria della Febbre, Rome, 1629, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.34

Church of Santa Maria della Febbre, Rome

Pieter Jansz Saenredam · 1629 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.34

Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Ruins of Assemburg Castle, probably c. 1628, engraving, Anonymous gift in memory of Charles B. Hoyt, 1950.2.50

Ruins of Assemburg Castle

Pieter Jansz Saenredam · probably c. 1628 · engraving ·  Accession ID  1950.2.50

Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Berkenrode Castle, probably c. 1628, engraving on laid paper, Anonymous gift in memory of Charles B. Hoyt, 1950.2.49

Berkenrode Castle

Pieter Jansz Saenredam · probably c. 1628 · engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1950.2.49

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Church Interior

Christian Josi, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Bernhard Schreuder · 1774, published 1821 · etching and roulette printed in black ink and hand-colored with wash ·  Accession ID  1974.6.1.8

Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Bernhard Schreuder, Church Interior, 1774, roulette and etching with burnishing printed in black ink on laid paper and hand-colored with wash, Gift of Sherwood B. Smith, Jr., 1977.67.31

Church Interior

Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Bernhard Schreuder · 1774 · roulette and etching with burnishing printed in black ink on laid paper and hand-colored with wash ·  Accession ID  1977.67.31

Bibliography

1870

  • Willigen, Adriaan van der. Les Artistes de Harlem: Notices historiques avec un précis sur la Gilde de St. Luc. Revised and enlarged ed. Haarlem and The Hague, 1870: 20, 261-262.

1935

  • Swillens, P.T. A. Pieter Janszoon Saenredam, schilder van Haarlem, 1597-1665. Amsterdam, 1935.

1961

  • Houtzager, Maria E., P. T. A. Swillens, and Iohannes Q. van Regteren Altena. Catalogue Raisonné of the Works by Pieter Jansz. Saenredam. Exh. cat. Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 1961: 29.

1970

  • Saenredam 1597-1665: Peintre des Eglises. Exh. cat. Institut Néerlandais, Paris, 1970.

1971

  • Bie, Cornelis de. Het gulden cabinet van de edel vry schilderconst. Edited by Gerard Lemmens. Reprint of Antwerp, 1661/1662. Soest, 1971: 246.

1983

  • Ruurs, Rob. "Pieter Saenredam: zijn boekenbezit en zijn relatie met de Pieter Wils." Oud Holland 97 (1983): 59-68.

1984

  • Dutch Court Painters: Saenredam's Great Church at Haarlem in Context. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1984.

1987

  • Ruurs, Rob. Saenredam: The Art of Perspective. (Oculi, Studies in the Arts of the Low Countries, nr. 1) Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1987.

1989

  • Schwartz, Gary, and Marten Jan Bok. Pieter Saenredam: De schilder in zijn tijd. Translated by Loekie Schwartz. Maarssen and The Hague, 1989

1991

  • Giltaij, Jeroen, and Guido Jansen. Perspectives: Saenredam and the Architectural Painters of the 17th century. Exh. cat. Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1991.

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:406.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 348-349.