Interior of a Gothic church

In pristine condition, this church interior by Pieter Neefs I is signed and dated 1636. Despite the soaring ceilings and gothic architectural details reminiscent of Antwerp Cathedral, a common subject for Neefs, the present work is an architectural fantasy (Liedtke, op. cit., p. 132). Using the smooth surface of the panel, Neefs carefully delineated the vaulted ceiling, clerestory windows and tiled floor to create the illusion of an expansive church interior. Within this finely detailed space are multiple vignettes: on the left, a well-dressed woman and her servant encounter a family of beggars, while a fashionably dressed man and a priest look on and two dogs play nearby. Up a small flight of stairs behind them, worshippers kneel before a priest at an altar, while at right a man worships alone in front of another side altar. The diminutive figures make the ecclesiastical space appear even more impressive, while also serving to guide the eye through it.

Born in Antwerp, Neefs trained with either Hendrick van Steenwijk the Elder or Younger, a father-son team of painters that specialized in minutely detailed, small-scale church interiors. Neefs achieved great success with the subject, which was also adopted by his sons Ludovicus and Pieter II.

The present work was owned by John Taylor Johnston and William Tilden Blodgett, the president of the board of trustees and the chairman of the executive committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art respectively, and was part of the founding purchase which they organized for the Museum in 1871.