17th

century

Oil on panel

Dutch

Interior of a gothic church

Vries, Paul Vredeman de (1567-c.1630)

Most of the artist’s gothic church interiors are imaginary but are usually based on Flemish or Brabantine gothic models, as seen in the main churches of Antwerp and Brussels.  Their characteristics are double aisles which allow for a proliferation of side chapels often adopted by guilds and confraternities.  The bare appearance of the interior of the church, shorn of its altarpieces, statues and objects of devotion, shows the general state of Netherlandish church interiors on the eve of the Baroque era when so many churches were refurnished.

Schorr Collection, UK / © The Schorr Collection / Bridgeman Images

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