Pieter Saenredam

Happy Birthday Pieter Saenredam!! The Dutch painter was born on this day, in 1597. He specialized in church interiors, creating sunlit visions in “cool, silvery tones”. Following the Protestant Reformation churches were stripped of any Catholic symbols and were quite austere. Saenredam painted these interiors, first drawing them out with pencil and chalk in technical perspective, then value shading and adding pale tones of watercolor. It is speculated, however that he was more interested in the perspective and interpretation of the Gothic elements rather than religion. In his The Buurkerk at Utrecht (1654) a sense of vastness and light is created.