Imaginary Church Interior

This signed and dated panel depicts an imaginary church interior with a staircase, an organ, a tomb, and elegant figures, with a dog in the foreground.

Dirck van Delen specialized in architectural subjects, in particular palaces and church interiors. Although the identity of his teacher remains unclear, the influence of artists such as Pieter Neeffs, active a generation earlier, and Hans and Paul Vredeman de Vries, the Dutch father and son who worked at the court of Rudolf II in Prague, on van Delen’s art is indubitable. Unlike his contemporary Pieter Saenredam, who was renown for his naturalistic paintings of existing buildings, van Delen specialized in imaginary architectural scenes that freely reinterpreted known interiors and emphasized dramatic spatial recession.