Painting the Inside of the Church

As we once again have the opportunity to attend religious services during the festive season, Howard Wallace muses on: ‘What drives an artist to paint the interior of a church?’. And especially, why paint the inside of a church that was stripped of all decoration when the Calvinists acquired it in 1573. For a relatively brief period the painting of church interiors was a popular pursuit in Dutch art. Pieter Jansz Saenredam (1597-1665) was a leading artist in this genre and from 1628 he specialised in church interiors. The NGV does not have any of his works but it does have one by Hendrick van Vliet (c. 1611–1675) who belonged to the Delft school of architectural painters. It is entitled The interior of St Janskerk at Gouda, painted in 1662 and it has a few clues as to why such a work might be undertaken beyond just the aesthetic appeal of the scene.

We view the interior of the church dedicated to St. John the Baptist at Gouda, which dates back to the 13^th century, although the building was largely constructed during the 15th and 16th centuries. The scene takes in an aisle, part of the nave, the pulpit, the organ behind the pulpit and a glimpse of some of the stained glass windows in the church. Several diamond shaped, wooden memorial plaques are attached to the stone columns. Of the people present in the church a grave digger opening a grave is most noticeable. He stops to talk to a man, possibly the verger. Among his findings are a skull and bones (more visible on the NGV website copy).

In an essay published in 2014 on the NGV website, Emma Devapriam, former Senior Curator of European Paintings (‘The Interior of St Janskerk at Gouda by Hendrick Cornelisz van der Vliet,’ Art Journal 31 at https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/the-interior-of-st-janskerk-at-gouda-by-hendrick-cornelisz-van-der-vliet/), discusses some of the detail of the painting. She notes ‘The board at the pulpit reads ‘Psalm 116, verse 1’’. The board usually indicates the text or psalm for Sunday’s worship although in this context it may have been the choice of the artist. Psalm 116:1 reads: ‘I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications’. In the following verses the psalmist gives the reasons for his love of God. When ‘the sorrows of death compassed’ him, he called ‘upon the name of the Lord’ and God delivered his ‘soul from death’. Devapriam also draws attention to the memorial plaques on the columns in the church as well as to the burgher on the left who contemplates the stained glass window directly behind the open grave (3^rd from left) where the story of Judith is portrayed. Devapriam notes that both the plaques and the window stress the notion of deliverance, especially deliverance from possible death.

But, I believe, more can be said here. Both the psalm and the story of Judith are not just about deliverance from death but about faithful living in relation to that. That is definitely the situation with Judith but also the psalm. While the psalmist speaks of God’s deliverance in a time of distress, and even promises to live faithfully as a result of that (v. 2, ‘Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.’), the psalmist is also clear that it has been their constant faithfulness that leads to God’s response. Compare v. 6 (‘The LORD protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.’), vv. 9-10 (‘I walk before the LORD in the land of the living. I kept my faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”.’) and v. 15 (‘Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones.’). All these verses speak about an existing and ongoing faithfulness upon which the psalmist can draw in times of need. It was also Judith’s continued faith which led to her deliverance according to her story. As Devapriam says: ‘the open grave and Psalm 116 clearly indicate that the painting also contains a moralising theme, a reminder of death and a hope of salvation. At the same time, the work communicates a definite sense of tranquillity and visual harmony which offset the darker undercurrents in the narrative’. She notes a comforting message about the hope or life beyond death as well as the aesthetic appeal of the work itself, but it also seems that the work is a call for a persistence in faithfulness in life as it is lived day today. It is in the daily interaction, contemplation, playfulness, conversation, and activity of people that faithfulness is expressed.

Beside the images of death, the picture picks up from the psalm a number of other images. The reference to the ‘simple’ v. 6) has nothing to do with mental acuity but rather speaks of innocence and weakness as we see in the boys discussing their rubbings. It also speaks of the children of the ‘Lord’s serving girl’, possibly alluded to in the image of the woman sitting beside the choir screen with her two children. This is not just a statement about death and hope but a solid statement of 17^thC Protestant theology on the nature of faithfulness and its intersection with the ordinary events and experiences of life.

The church may have been stripped of artistic adornment, as was the custom of the Reformed Church at that time, but it also suggests that the ‘real adornment’ of the church lies in those who faithfully live out their lives within its domain.