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Emanuel de
Witte
1615-1691/92
Interior of the Nieuwe
Kerk, Amsterdam
1657
Oil on canvas
34-1/2 x 40-1/2 in.
Emanuel de Witte was the great church painter of the second half of the seventeenth century. He began specializing in church interiors after 1650, when an interest developed in such interiors as viable subjects in themselves rather than for their specific religious imagery. In this painting, De Witte shows the nave and choir of the Nieuwe Kerk, or New Church, with the great organ visible in the distance. Grave diggers are working at the left foreground, having displaced some bones interred earlier. De Witte often included grave diggers in his church paintings, perhaps as a comment on the transience of earthly life. The pillar on the left bears a monument and the coat of arms of the Coymans family. Two Coymans brothers died in 1657, the date of this painting, which may have been commissioned as a memorial to the two men.