La Chambre Des Reines

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Pieter Janzoon Saenredam (the "portrait painter" of Dutch churches) was one of the greatest artist of the Golden Age of Dutch art. He was the son of Jan Saenredam (Janzoon = son of Jan), a well known engraver and born in Assendelft (in the province North Holland) 

When Jan died in 1607 he left his wife and child a healthy legacy, having invested in the lucrative Dutch East India Company. Mother and son moved to Haarlem, where he lived for the rest of his life.

In 1623 Pieter Saenredam entered Haarlem's painters' guild. Three years later, commissioned to produce illustrations for a history of Haarlem, he made his first drawing of the interior of the church of Saint Bavo. From then on, he devoted himself almost exclusively to painting church interiors, always using precise perspective.

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Saenredam's sacred spaces are designed for contemplation. Unlike his flamboyant predecessors who evoked the pomp, pageantry, and theatre of churches, usually Roman Catholic, Saenredam painted the whitewashed austerity of the Dutch Reformed church, in which tiny figures move through great, spacious halls. There are no processions, no clusters of worshippers at shrines. He adopted a very low viewpoint and used fine glazes, which allowed him to achieve subtle variations when capturing the transparency of air or the appearance of delicately veined marble. 

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His refined palette centers on the grays and very pale gold tones that diffuse a soft light onto the pure white architecture. The whole effect is almost monochrome, giving an impression of space and silence favourable to meditation. The flow of pure vertical lines, with their almost abstract rhythm, has strikingly modern echoes.

While his output as a painter was small, Saenredam was also a superb draftsman, and many of his architectural drawings have survived.

Source: Rijksmuseum - Amsterdam, Getty Museum - Los Angeles, Louvre Museum_ Paris
MP3: Johann Sebastian Bach, In dulci jubilo, Orgelbudlein, Wachet auf, church organ