2-989-402 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Interior of Nieuwe Kerk, Delft, Unknown date. Church interiors became a separate genre in Holland in the seventeenth century. In Hendrick Cornelisz van Vliet’s painting the church space seems almost like a town square. People gather, look at objects, and let their dogs run loose; a meeting-place rather than a space for religious reverence. At the same time the interior of the church is an expression of the religious conditions in Holland. It is painted white in accordance with the notions of the Reformation, and, as far as one can tell, stripped of images.