Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk at Delft

Like the architectural paintings of the Antwerp school, Dutch church interiors were exclusive collectors’ items. Only a few decades after the separation of the predominantly Calvinist northern provinces from the southern provinces, which had returned to Catholicism, a specific kind of architectural painting developed as an independent subject in the Protestant north.
The Nieuwe Kerk in Delft was the burial-ground of the House of Orange-Nassau, and of political importance as a monument of the Republic. De Witte’s interior was painted in 1664, in Amsterdam. The structure and composition are comparable with several versions of this view from the wooden barrel-vaulting of the south side-aisle, with the tomb of William I of Orange (1533–1584) partially concealed by a pillar. The monument to the Prince – highly esteemed as freedom fighter and founder of the Republic – is decorated with obelisks, flags and coats-of-arms.
The asymmetrical arrangement of the short diagonal view through the massive pillars makes for an interesting spatial structure. The limited area shown and the play of light give the illusion of a snapshot, familiar to the modern eye. A rear-view figure in a red cloak usually leads the viewer into the picture. People at prayer, wheelbarrow and open graves combine the sacred and the secular.
In contemporary inventories, de Witte’s many paintings showing church interiors as a place for imparting faith were mostly known as “sermons” (Reformational concentration on the Word of God), and thus differentiated from the other architectural paintings known as “perspectives”.

OEHRING Erika: Witte Emanuel de, Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk at Delft, in: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas, OEHRING Erika: Masterworks. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2015, p. 62