Completed British 16th and 17th C, except portraits, British 18th C, except portraits, Continental European before 1800 7 More information sought regarding church interior: St Pieter's at Louvain, or Antwerp Cathedral?

TWMS_SAG_TWCMS_C7382
Topic: Subject or sitter

There's another version of this work held by National Trust – see link – identifying the location as 'An Imaginary View of the Interior of Antwerp Cathedral': http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/an-imaginary-view-of-antwerp-cathedral-176419

National Trust Collections record: http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/436105

Could anyone provide any further information relating to these works?

The collection note: 'Unfortunately no notes on this.'

Completed, Outcome

Jade Audrey King,

The title of this work is now 'A Church Interior, a Christening Party' with 'St Pieters at Louvain, a Christening Party' as an alternative title.

This amend will appear on the new version of the Your Paintings website in early 2016. Thank you to all for participating in this discussion. To those viewing this discussion for the first time, please see below for all comments that led to this conclusion.

6 comments

FAES Frank,

In my opinion copy after :
Original Hendrick van Steenwyck the Elder
St. Peter's Church Louvain
Panel 31,5 x 47 cm
Brussels, Royal Museum of Fine Arts
Inv.No. 6683

Steenwyck lived briefly in Louvain in the 1560s and this may well have been inspired by the church he knew there.

Curtis Harris,

I also have a painting that I feel has a connection to s earlier work by Steenwijck.

Osmund Bullock,

There is another version at Utrecht:
https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/18212

The entry for the above mentions other almost identical versions at Brussels (as mentioned by Frank Faes - http://balat.kikirpa.be/object/20025967 ), and in a private collection at Laren, Netherlands. The NT Belton House one is also listed as very close.

These two would seem to show a slightly different view of the same church interior:
https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/215123
https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/59518

In no case, however, is a church name suggested. Looking at other images from the 16th/17th Centuries, it doesn't seem to be an accurate representation of either Antwerp Cathedral or Sint-Pieterskerk in Leuven (Louvain) - most notably, their pillar styles are very different. The two differing, but related views linked above encourage one to think it may be (or have been) a real church. But I gather that these church interiors by the van Steenwijks and many others were seldom literal, incorporating elements from several structures; so the NT may well be right in suggesting that the view is at least part-imagined. This is not my field, though, and others will have more useful things to say on the subject.

Tim Williams,

Regrettably no information from the NIRP database made it onto 'Your Paintings', but if you click the 'Open on NICE paintings' link, a wealth of information is to be found there.

Shipley Art Gallery,

Thank you for all your comments. Having looked into them all I have changed the title of this work to 'A Church Interior, a Christening Party', retaining 'St Pieters at Louvain, a Christening Party' as an alternate title.