Interior of the St Bavokerk in Haarlem, Seen from the South Ambulatory, Looking across the Choir to the North Ambulatory and the Large Organ

The support is an oak panel consisting of two vertically grained planks and is bevelled on all sides. The panel was primed with a thin chalk ground. Paint samples revealed a lead-white layer on top of the ground. This imprimatura was applied with clearly visible brushmarks. Underdrawing is visible to the naked eye. Infrared reflectography revealed an extensive and detailed underdrawing, apparently transferred from a preliminary construction drawing by indentation. Some of the figures on the organ shutter were altered. There are also alterations in the paint layers, for instance in the position of the organ shutter. Gilding was applied in several areas. Gold leaf was used for the gold-coloured ornaments of the large organ, and silver leaf was used for the pipes. The thin paint layers were applied smoothly, and wet in wet in the columns. A limited palette was used, with the exception of the large organ, which is executed in bright colours. The figures were painted on top of the background.

Van Asperen de Boer 1971, pp. 26-30; Van Heemstra 2000, p. 85

Good. Apart from a disturbing filling in the large organ and slight abrasion in the gilded ornaments, the paint layers are in good condition.

...; ? purchased by the museum from the art dealer P.C. Huybrechts, The Hague, 20 June 1803;¹¹Moes/Van Biema 1909, p. 164, no. 270, with an incorrect inv. no. ? or, fl. 700, to the museum, with Interior of the St Bavokerk in Haarlem by Isaac van Nickelen (SK-A-360; at the time listed as Saenredam), 1806;²²Note RMA. on loan to the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, 1925-59

ObjectNumber: SK-A-359

Gothic St Bavo’s in Haarlem is the church that Saenredam depicted most often, there being at least 12 views of its interior produced between 1628, the year on his earliest dated painting, and 1660.⁵⁵Schwartz/Bok 1990, pp. 257-62; see also Edinburgh 1984 and Biesboer 1985. Like the one discussed here, six of these paintings are from the period 1635-37.

Saenredam followed his usual procedure for this picture, first making a site sketch which he then worked up into a detailed construction drawing. He blackened the back of the latter so that he could transfer the lines onto the white ground of the panel by indenting them. The sketch on blue paper for this painting dated 30 August 1635 still survives (fig. a), as has the lower half of the construction drawing of three months later (fig. b).⁶⁶See Ruurs 1987, pp. 137-38, no. 8. According to an annotation on that sheet, the painted version was completed on 15 April 1636.

The view is towards the north ambulatory and the so-called Christmas Chapel.⁷⁷On which see Schwartz/Bok 1990, pp. 114-21. One innovation is the way in which the artist used the two large columns and a lancet arch as a framing device for the central scene.⁸⁸See Liedtke 1971, p. 138, for the innovative elements in this painting. Prominence is given to the two organs. In the background is the small organ built in 1594 by Peter Jansz de Swart of Utrecht,⁹⁹Vente 1970, p. 434. See also Haarlem 1961, p. 157. but the main focus is on the large organ on the left, which the artist subtly draws added attention to with the gaze of the standing man with a sword at his side. Saenredam raised the crown of the arch slightly in order to provide the best possible view of the organ.¹⁰¹⁰On this see Carter 1967; Liedtke 1971, p. 130, note 37, p. 132; Liedtke 1975, p. 165, who criticized earlier remarks about the perspective in this painting made in Heckmanns 1965, pp. 24-27. General studies on Saenredam’s use of perspective are Liedtke 1971; Ruurs 1982; Ruurs 1987; De Groot 2000. He also applied gold and silver leaf to add lustre to the metal parts of the instrument, which was highly unusual in 17th-century Dutch painting.¹¹¹¹Saenredam used this technique in at least ten other pictures, among them SK-A-851; on this see Van Heemstra 2000, pp. 82-88.

The large organ, which remained in use until the 18th century, was made in 1463 by the Utrecht organ builder Pieter Gerritsz. Its shutters were painted by Vrederick Hoon in 1465. The Rijksmuseum painting shows that the right shutter was decorated with a scene of the Resurrection.¹²¹²For the large organ see Vente 1961; Vente 1970, p. 434. For the sculpted head below the case see Van Zanten 1999, p. 32, note 52. For the shutters see Bruyn 1963; Van Zanten 1999, p. 68. The inscriptions on the organ are from Psalms 150:4 and Colossians 3:16, on which see Schwartz 1966, p. 89, note 36; Keyl 1986, p. 61. The instrument was completely restored and enlarged between 1630 and 1634 by Galtus and Germer van Hagerbeer of Amersfoort.¹³¹³For this renovation see Vente 1961, pp. 9-19; Keyl 1986, p. 64. In 1634, the year the restoration was completed, a group of 44 music-lovers submitted a petition asking the Haarlem authorities to allow the organ to be played on weekdays, not just Sundays, which was a controversial issue around this time. Saenredam embarked on a series of drawings of the church that same year. The prominence of the organ in this painting has led to the speculation that local organ enthusiasts may have commissioned Saenredam.¹⁴¹⁴Keyl 1986, pp. 65-66; Schwartz/Bok 1990, p. 128. The theory in Schwartz 1966, p. 89, note 38 that the iconography of the painting was arrived at jointly with Constantijn Huygens, the stadholder’s private secretary in The Hague, has been superseded by Keyl 1986, pp. 64-65. The choice of the instrument as the central motif in the painting could equally well have been Saenredam’s, however, for organs play an important part in many of his church interiors.¹⁵¹⁵See Schwartz/Bok 1990, pp. 124-28; De Groot 2000, p. 19.

As is usual in Saenredam’s church interiors, the figures are painted on top of the background. It is assumed that they are by Saenredam himself.¹⁶¹⁶Oral communication, Gudlaugsson, quoted in Schwartz 1966, p. 78, note 20. The most prominent ones are the woman with the children in the left foreground and the man with the sword in the middleground. A man and a woman can be seen in the gallery in the right background. Several authors have written about the bearing that the staffage might have on the interpretation of the painting,¹⁷¹⁷Schwartz 1966, pp. 87-89, note 30; De Vries 1975, pp. 48-49; Biesboer 1985, p. 88. See also Alpers 1983, p. 175. although without arriving at a totally convincing theory.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 258.

Swillens in Utrecht 1961, pp. 82-84, no. 38; Schwartz 1966, pp. 85-90; Keyl 1986; Schwartz/Bok 1990, pp. 121, 124-26, 259, no. 38

1809, p. 63, no. 270; 1843, p. 53, no. 275 (‘in good condition’); 1853, p. 24, no. 247 (fl. 400), or no. 248 (fl. 1,500); 1858, p. 126, no. 277 (as A Gothic Church); 1876, p. 176, no. 352 (as A Gothic Church); 1880, p. 275, no. 315; 1887, p. 149, no. 1256; 1903, p. 235, no. 2096; 1960, p. 273, no. 2096; 1976, p. 491, no. A 359; 2007, no. 258

G. Wuestman, 2007, 'Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, Interior of the St Bavokerk in Haarlem, Seen from the South Ambulatory, Looking across the Choir to the North Ambulatory and the Large Organ, 1636-04-15', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5349