Skip to main content

Bartholomeus van Bassen, 'Interior of St Cunerakerk, Rhenen', 1638

About the work

Overview

The church we are looking into here – the Cunerakerk – still towers above the small town of Rhenen in the Netherlands. Bartholomeus van Bassen was an expert in painting church interiors such as these, often adding inventive details, though he employed other artists to paint the figures.

The Cunerakerk was well known to medieval pilgrims as it held relics of the obscure but revered Saint Cunera. In the seventeenth century the church became the court chapel of the exiled Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, Frederick V, and his wife Elizabeth Stuart. Van Bassen, also a skilled architect, was asked to transform the adjoining convent of the Cunerakerk into a grand winter palace for the exiled royals.

Key facts

Details

Full title
Interior of St Cunerakerk, Rhenen
Artist dates
active 1613; died 1652
Date made
1638
Medium and support
oil on wood
Dimensions
61.1 × 80.5 cm
Inscription summary
Signed; Dated and inscribed
Acquisition credit
Presented by F.A. White through the Art Fund, 1917.
Inventory number
NG3164
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images