Groundplan of the Church of Saint John in ’s-Hertogenbosch

Pieter Jansz. Saenredam

1632 · Pen and brown ink, yellow, gray and red wash, over lead or graphite · Drawings and Prints

This drawing is one of only two known architectural plans by the famous Dutch artist Saenredam, best known for his meticulous perspectival oil paintings of churches and church interiors. Numerous preparatory drawings, done at the scene, allowed Saenredam to re-create a specific church interior while working in his studio, sometimes years later. This plan of the Cathedral of Saint John shows an aspect of the artist’s working process—inscribing a pre-drafted plan of the building with detailed measurements from the site. Saenredam’s scrupulous nature comes to the fore in the corrections he made in his inscriptions, indicating where the sketch was misleading and reminding himself to trust the figures rather than the scale of his drawing.

Artist

Pieter Jansz. Saenredam

Date

1632

Medium

Pen and brown ink, yellow, gray and red wash, over lead or graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Rogers Fund, Paul W. L. Russell, David T. Schiff, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Fisch, and Annette de la Renta Gifts, 2012