Gezicht op de preekstoel in de Nieuwe Kerk te Amsterdam 1680 - 1731

Curator: My goodness, the detail is astounding. It's almost like staring into a dollhouse – grand, somber, yet strangely playful. Editor: This is an engraving by Jan Goeree, titled “Gezicht op de preekstoel in de Nieuwe Kerk te Amsterdam,” or "View of the pulpit in the New Church in Amsterdam.” It probably dates sometime between 1680 and 1731. It's quite interesting for several reasons. For one, it documents the physical space of religious and civic authority. Curator: Authority definitely comes through. Look at the scale of the pulpit relative to the people! It’s a declaration. It seems almost to hover in this vast, vaulted space, a little intimidating, a little…theatrical? Is that fair to say about a church? Editor: Well, think of the sermons of the Dutch Golden Age as public performances, civic instruction mingling with theology. The artist focuses less on piety than on a bustling slice of Amsterdam life, complete with figures casually positioned as if to draw the eye deeper into the space and down to what's happening on the ground. Curator: The light! I can almost feel the chill of the stone. And I appreciate that it is not just worship and contemplation, but a sort of ordered chaos… I spot children playing! Did they really play badminton in the church? I didn’t realize how secular these sacred places could be! Editor: This engraving allows us a glimpse into the role of the church and of religious space at the time: was it for everyman, a community center as much as a spiritual hub, or were the services merely a show of power, divorced from lived reality? Curator: Well, it seems like a space for the people, definitely. Seeing this blend—the grand, almost austere setting buzzing with everyday life—makes the era so alive. Editor: Absolutely. Goeree's Amsterdam seems quite dynamic. Makes you wonder what debates and decisions echoed from that pulpit. Curator: And how life—games and all—went on, right underneath it all. A powerful counterpoint, perhaps, for our own times.