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Lot Essay
Born in Doornik (Tournai) in the Southern Netherlands, Anthonie de Lorme moved with his family as a young boy to Rotterdam, where he probably also received his artistic training. He specialized in architectural paintings, and his career can be divided into two periods. In his early career until about 1652, de Lorme produced imaginary, often candlelit, interiors of a type that were inspired by his presumed teacher, Jan van Vucht, and the architectural painter Bartholomeus van Bassen. In that year, he changed directions and began to paint architecturally accurate renderings of the interior of the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam, no doubt inspired by Gerard Houckgeest’s pioneering depictions of the interiors of the Oude and Nieuwe Kerks in Delft from 1650 on. De Lorme’s depictions of the Laurenskerk were so successful that the French traveler Balthasar de Monconys noted following a visit to his studio in 1663 that ‘he makes only diverse views of the church in Rotterdam, but does so with great skill’ (B. de Monconys, Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys, II, Lyon, 1666, p. 131).
This impressive panel is a particularly successful example of de Lorme’s first period, where his virtuoso abilities depicting the effects of artificial light across complex architectural forms can be seen to full effect. Giant columns support a cavernous space covered by a barrel-vaulted ceiling. On either side of the nave, dimly lit spaces open up, affording the viewer a glimpse into its seemingly limitless space that converges at a single vanishing point. The relatively sparse interior, save several tombs, a pulpit and an organ, suggests this is a Protestant place of worship. Several groups of figures by the Delft painter Anthonie Palamedesz. converse or stroll across the checkered tile floor. Among the group is one of the main sources of the painting’s illumination – a Black man dressed in a light purple mantle holding a long candle in his right hand. Africans arrived in the Netherlands in the late sixteenth century and, while not enslaved, frequently served as domestic servants (for further commentary of the depiction of Black people in Dutch art, see E. Kolfin, ‘Black Models in Dutch Art between 1580 and 1800: Fact and Fiction’, in Black Is Beautiful: Rubens to Dumas, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, 2008, pp. 71-87).
De Lorme followed the usual practice of architectural painters of his day when working out the composition of this panel. He first drove a small pin into the panel at the vanishing point, visible in a small dent in the paint surface. He then attached a string to the pin to assist with drawing the orthogonal lines of his composition. That he followed this practice can be seen in parts of the painting where the underdrawing has become evident in places where the paint layers have become slightly transparent over time.
As Hans Jantzen has observed, this painting may plausibly be the pendant to a lost church interior dated 1649 by de Lorme which was formerly in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (fig. 1; op. cit., p. 79). Not only are the dimensions of the two panels nearly identical, but they function well as a pair, with the two sets of stairs bookending the compositions.
This impressive panel is a particularly successful example of de Lorme’s first period, where his virtuoso abilities depicting the effects of artificial light across complex architectural forms can be seen to full effect. Giant columns support a cavernous space covered by a barrel-vaulted ceiling. On either side of the nave, dimly lit spaces open up, affording the viewer a glimpse into its seemingly limitless space that converges at a single vanishing point. The relatively sparse interior, save several tombs, a pulpit and an organ, suggests this is a Protestant place of worship. Several groups of figures by the Delft painter Anthonie Palamedesz. converse or stroll across the checkered tile floor. Among the group is one of the main sources of the painting’s illumination – a Black man dressed in a light purple mantle holding a long candle in his right hand. Africans arrived in the Netherlands in the late sixteenth century and, while not enslaved, frequently served as domestic servants (for further commentary of the depiction of Black people in Dutch art, see E. Kolfin, ‘Black Models in Dutch Art between 1580 and 1800: Fact and Fiction’, in Black Is Beautiful: Rubens to Dumas, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, 2008, pp. 71-87).
De Lorme followed the usual practice of architectural painters of his day when working out the composition of this panel. He first drove a small pin into the panel at the vanishing point, visible in a small dent in the paint surface. He then attached a string to the pin to assist with drawing the orthogonal lines of his composition. That he followed this practice can be seen in parts of the painting where the underdrawing has become evident in places where the paint layers have become slightly transparent over time.
As Hans Jantzen has observed, this painting may plausibly be the pendant to a lost church interior dated 1649 by de Lorme which was formerly in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (fig. 1; op. cit., p. 79). Not only are the dimensions of the two panels nearly identical, but they function well as a pair, with the two sets of stairs bookending the compositions.