Side-Aisle at St Bavo Church in Haarlem 1695

Isaak van Nickelen painted this view of the Side-Aisle at St Bavo Church in Haarlem using oil on canvas. Van Nickelen specialized in architectural painting, and in this work, likely from the late 17th century, he directs our gaze down the nave of this massive Gothic church, emphasizing its soaring height and impressive scale. The clean lines and muted color palette give it an air of Protestant austerity, and the figures in the painting are dwarfed by the architectural space. Located in the Netherlands, the Sint-Bavokerk was originally a Catholic cathedral, but it was seized during the Reformation and repurposed for Calvinist worship. This act of defacement and re-dedication was a common feature of the religious and political upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries. Its grand scale speaks to the power of religious institutions to dominate social space. To understand the social conditions that shape artistic production we can look at church records, political pamphlets, and the writings of contemporary religious figures. The meaning of art is contingent on social and institutional context.