Interior of the Oude Kerk at Delft during a Sermon

About 1650 the most interesting developments in architectural painting took place in Delft, where a new phase began with the church interiors by Gerard Houckgeest, Emanuel de Witte, and Hendrick Cornelisz van Vliet. Stylistic affinities with works done during the decade in the city by Carel Fabritius, Pieter de Hooch, an Vermeer are apparent, and Vermeer’s own exceptional masterpieces in this branch of painting can be viewed as part of the new movement.

In Saenredam’s earlier church interiors the line of vision is always at an angle of about 90° to the centre of the nave or to the wall of the building he depicts. Houckgeest had the new idea of shifting his position to the side to give an angle of about 45° to the principal axis of the church. The new position creates intriguingly intricate diagonal views across the church. Emanuel de Witte experimented with similar perspectival schemes about 1650. His earliest dated interior that employs the new point of view is the Interior of the Oude Kerk at Delft during a Sermon. It does not focus on a tomb of a hero, but on the minister preaching from a pulpit, which is still in place, to a large congregation. In de Witte’s painting the Word, not patriotism, is stressed.