Thoughts on art and travel: Revisiting an artistic interior

An artistic interior /
Interior of the Church of Saint Bavo
by Dutch artist Pieter Saenredam

As I ready to visit Europe next month for the first time in six years, I am reminded of the last time I crossed the Atlantic Ocean. It was during a spring holiday in 2012, and my travel included visits to Amsterdam and Brussels, with a quick day trip by train to Paris. As I recall, I spent part of a Sunday afternoon visiting the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. For me, spending time in art museums is always time well spent. And, if you're lucky like I was on that day, you just might learn something new, too.

In an exhibit featuring a retrospective of Dutch artists, I came across a 17th-century painting depicting the interior of the Saint Bavo Church in Haarlem, the Netherlands, by Pieter Jansz. Saenredam.

Saenredam (1597-1665), who was the son of a printmaker and draughtsman, painted this oil on panel of the light-filled interior of Saint Bavo Church in 1636. Saenredam painted no fewer than six "portraits" of Saint Bavo, considered by many as one of the finest Gothic buildings still in existence today. Each time, he focused on one of the organs. Here, he depicted the Resurrection of Christ on the open shutter of the organ. He mixed gold powder with his paint to represent the gold in the painting. In describing the ornamentation of this painting, the Rijksmuseum website wrote: 

"At the time Saenredam painted the Saint Bavo Church, leading music-lovers were campaigning for more organ music to be played in church services. Calvinist ministers object to organ music. Little music was played in church and psalms were sung unaccompanied. The ministers would rather have had no organs at all in church because they felt the beautifully decorated organs were evidence of ostentation and excess. Haarlem's music-lovers handed a petition to the town council, in which they asked to be allowed to use the organ, 'the ornament of the church', everyday. It is possible that Saenredam gave the organs a prominent position in his painting in support of this campaign."

(As an aside, the interior of the church, which was originally Roman Catholic, was stripped of all of its embellishments, including statues and paintings, by the Protestants following the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation.)

What I learned in researching the artist and the painting is this: Saenredam was the first Dutch painter to specialize in church interiors. His precise on-the-spot observations and detailed perspectives helped us to have a better understanding and appreciation for these architectural marvels. And, through the addition of including tiny figures, he helped to emphasize the height and immensity of the church. Finally, in some of his interior paintings, the artist used a central perspective: All the lines in the painting disappear in a single point.

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, which owns one of Saenredam's interior paintings of Saint Bavo, commented on his work in its website:

"The overall impression is one of strong verticality, soaring space, and penetrating light, a spiritual reference to the heavens above. The inclusion of small figures accentuate the viewer's experience of exalted interior space. Saenredam described architectural elements in great detail: vaulted ceilings, moldings, decorative capitals, clustered pillars, and clerestory windows."

Saenredam made his first drawing of the interior of the church of Saint Bavo in 1626. From then on, he devoted himself almost exclusively to painting church interiors, always using precise perspective. Of his fifty surviving paintings, almost half show the interiors of two churches, Saint Bavo and the Mariakerk in Utrecht.

What can we learn from Saenredam's sacred interior spaces? For one, they were designed for contemplation. Unlike others whose paintings evoked a certain type of pomp, pageantry, and theatre that was usually seen in Roman Catholic churches, Saenredam's surprisingly modern paintings evoked "the whitewashed austerity of the Dutch Reformed church," says the Getty Center.

In describing Saenredam's style and viewpoint, the Getty Center said: "There are no processions, no clusters of worshippers at shrines. He adopted a very low viewpoint and a palette restricted to the palest of tones, and allowed few people into his bare interiors. He concentrated on depicting light, color, and space. Many Dutch artists continued his tradition, but few equaled his inventive vision." 

Indeed, Saenredam's painting of the interior of the Church of Saint Bavo owes its poetry to his desire to paint a faithful rendering, one that is careful and accurate.

Note: An original version of this blog post was published on July 10, 2012.

What we can learn from art on a starry night

Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night / 1889 oil on canvas.

I love Dutch art. I feel comfortable and at ease being around it. 

Some of my best life experiences have been spent perusing Dutch masterstroke painters like Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rubens in museums across the world, in Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Amsterdam, alone, I've spent many enjoyable hours walking through the galleries of the Rijksmuseum, the Hermitage Amsterdam and the Van Gogh museums admiring the Dutch Golden Age of art and much more.

What's not to like or to learn from it?

And, then, there's famous 19th century Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), whose post-Impressionist work is notable for its "rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color," that I am very fond of. Van Gogh once said: "If you hear a voice within you saying, 'You are not a painter,' then by all means paint … and that voice will be silenced." 

Art, as I have learned through my travels, teaches us to notice what we feel, and how to think for ourselves. It also helps us learn to see and appreciate the world all around us.

And, yet, art teaches us how to express ourselves in ways that words cannot ~ even though it's said that every picture is worth a thousand words.

In a project designed to engage feedback, the Bainbridge Island (Wash.) Museum of Art asked its patrons of all ages a very simple but matter-of-fact question:

"What can art teach us?"

As you might imagine, many of the responses ~ especially those from children ~ were most perceptive.

One child said: "Art teaches us about life. Art teaches us how to see the world in new ways." 

Another child's response struck a chord with many of my friends when I shared it with them on Facebook:

"Art teaches us that it's okay to color your trees purple." 

I like that response very much.

After all, if coloring our trees purple provides us with pleasure and makes us happy, I say: "Go for it!" 

While van Gogh may not have colored his trees purple in any of his paintings, his work was quite colorful and very artistic. I've always admired his painting "Les Iris", his 1889 interpretation of irises, since we have an iris garden in our back yard.

Of course, I marvel at what is arguably van Gogh's most artistic achievement, "Starry Night", which the artist painted from memory during the day time. It depicts the nocturnal view outside van Gogh's sanitarium room window at Saint Rémy-de-Provence in France. "Starry Night" has become one of the most well known images in modern culture. It became the subject of a popular, 1971 song "Vincent" by Don McLean, whose lyrics were written with the iconic painting in mind. "Starry Night" is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 

I have learned through studying van Gogh's life and paintings that he was very outspoken when it came to sharing his thoughts about art and its relationship with life, love and religion. After all, during his early years as an artist (1876-1880), he wanted to dedicate his life to the evangelization of those in poverty. 

"The best way to know God is to love many things," said van Gogh. "It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done."

According to van Gogh, there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. "Close friends are truly life's treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves," he said. "With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.”  

Indeed, art teaches us to feel emotion. And, the artistic legacy of van Gogh will forever remain with us through his paintings, drawings and writings. They are everlasting. 

"Love is something eternal," said van Gogh. "The aspect may change, but not the essence."

A calm serenity inside an artistic interior

An artistic interior /
Interior of the Saint Bavo Church in Haarlem, the Netherlands,
painted by 17th-century Dutch artist Pieter Jansz. Saenredam.
This painting is part of the Rijksmuseum's permanent collection.

During my recent European holiday, I spent a portion of a Sunday afternoon visiting the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. For me, spending time in art museums is always time well spent. And, if you're lucky like I was on that day, you just might learn something new about art that relates to history, too.

In an exhibit featuring a retrospective of Dutch artists, I came across a 17th-century painting depicting the interior of the Saint Bavo Church in Haarlem, the Netherlands, by Pieter Jansz. Saenredam.

Saenredam (1597-1665), who was the son of a print maker and draughtsman, was one of the most remarkable painters of 17th-century Holland, a period known as the Golden Age of Dutch Art. He painted this oil on panel of the light-filled interior of Saint Bavo Church in 1636.

Saenredam painted no fewer than six "portraits" of Saint Bavo, considered by many as one of the finest Gothic buildings still in existence today. Each time, he focused on one of the organs. Here, he depicted the Resurrection of Christ on the open shutter of the organ. He mixed gold powder with his paint to represent the gold in the painting. In describing the ornamentation of this painting, the Rijksmuseum website noted:

"At the time Saenredam painted the Saint Bavo Church, leading music-lovers were campaigning for more organ music to be played in church services. Calvinist ministers objected to organ music. Little music was played in church and psalms were sung unaccompanied. The ministers would rather have had no organs at all in church because they felt the beautifully decorated  organs were evidence of ostentation and excess. Haarlem's music-lovers handed a petition to the town council, in which they asked to be allowed to use the organ, 'the ornament of the church', everyday. It is possible that Saenredam gave the organs a prominent position in his painting in support of this campaign."

(As an aside, the interior of the church, which was originally Roman Catholic, was stripped of all of its embellishments, including statues and paintings, by the Protestants following the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation.)

What I learned in researching the artist and this painting is this: Saenredam was the first Dutch painter to specialize in church interiors. His precise on-the-spot observations and detailed perspectives helped us to have a better understanding and appreciation for these architectural marvels. And, through the addition of including tiny figures, he helped to emphasize the height and immensity of the church. Also, in some of his interior paintings, the artist used a central perspective: All of the lines in the painting disappear in a single point. Finally, Saenredam signed and dated all of his paintings in order to speak to posterity, a personal testament to the history of his work for future generations.

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, which owns one of Saenredam's interior paintings of Saint Bavo, commented on his work in its website:

"The overall impression is one of strong verticality, soaring space, and penetrating light, a spiritual reference to the heavens above. The inclusion of small figures accentuates the viewer's experience of exalted interior space. Saenredam described architectural elements in great detail: vaulted ceilings, moldings, decorative capitals, clustered pillars, and clerestory windows."

Saenredam made his first drawing of the interior of the church of Saint Bavo in 1626. From then on, he devoted himself almost exclusively to painting church interiors, always using precise perspective. Of his fifty surviving paintings, almost half show the interiors of two churches, Saint Bavo and the Mariakerk in Utrecht.

What can we learn from Saenredam's sacred interior spaces? For one, they were designed for contemplation. Unlike others whose paintings evoked a certain type of pomp, pageantry, and theatre that was usually seen in Roman Catholic churches, Saenredam's surprisingly modern paintings evoked "the whitewashed austerity of the Dutch Reformed Church," says the Getty Center.

In describing Saenredam's style and viewpoint, the Getty Center said: "There are no processions, no clusters of worshippers at shrines. He adopted a very low viewpoint and a palette restricted to the palest of tones, and allowed few people into his bare interiors. He concentrated on depicting light, color, and space. Many Dutch artists continued his tradition, but few equaled his inventive vision."

Indeed, Saenredam's painting of the interior of Saint Bavo Church owes its calm serenity to his desire to paint a faithful rendering, one that is careful and accurate. And, more fact than fiction.