Pieter Saenredam, The Utrecht Work

Book excerpt: Pieter Saenredam (1597–1665) was one of the magical painters of 17th-century Holland, a time known as the Golden Age of Dutch Art. He spent his career immortalizing the churches of Holland in drawings and paintings. Working through a series of perspective drawings to the finished painting, he made innumerable fine adjustments to architectural details to create what may be justly called spaces of wondrous perfection of proportion and luminosity. Pieter Saenredam, The Utrecht Work is published to coincide with an exhibition of Saenredam’s drawings and paintings, originally held at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, and on view from April 16 through July 7, 2002 at the Getty Museum. This elegant volume brings together more than sixty drawings and paintings depicting the beautiful and historically venerable churches of the Dutch city of Utrecht.