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Interior of the Oude Kerk, Delft

probably 1650
Not on view

Despite its profusion of realistic details, de Witte’s interior view of Delft’s Oude Kerk (Old Church) takes considerable liberties with the actual architecture of the church—omitting, for example, a grand sculpted pulpit from the central pier. In this whitewashed interior, heraldic emblems and civic banners have taken the places of the religious paintings and sculpture destroyed during the iconoclastic violence that accompanied the Protestant Reformation in the Netherlands. The young boys scribbling on the column and the urinating dog on the right show a strikingly irreverent attitude toward the sacred space, while a newly dug grave in the foreground provides a sobering reminder of mortality.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Interior of the Oude Kerk, Delft
  • Artist: Emanuel de Witte (Dutch, Alkmaar ca. 1616–1692 Amsterdam)
  • Date: probably 1650
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: 19 x 13 5/8 in. (48.3 x 34.6 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Virgilia and Walter C. Klein, The Walter C. Klein Foundation, Edwin Weisl Jr., and Frank E. Richardson Gifts, and Bequest of Theodore Rousseau and Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, by exchange, 2001
  • Object Number: 2001.403
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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Herman Doomer (ca. 1595–1650), Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) Dutch, Oil on wood
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Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)
1640
Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, Pieter Claesz Dutch, Oil on wood
Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill
Pieter Claesz
1628
The Visit, Pieter de Hooch Dutch, Oil on wood
The Visit
Pieter de Hooch
ca. 1657
A Woodland Road with Travelers, Jan Brueghel the Elder Netherlandish, Oil on wood
A Woodland Road with Travelers
Jan Brueghel the Elder
1607
The Preaching of John the Baptist, Bartholomeus Breenbergh Dutch, Oil on wood
The Preaching of John the Baptist
Bartholomeus Breenbergh
1634

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