Interior of a Gothic Church

There is a direct analogy between this work and a depiction of a church interior, signed and dated by Pieter Neeffs the Elder in 1636, that is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Employing a single compositional scheme throughout his career, Neeffs produced dozens of similar works that differ only in individual details. Comparing the two 1636 works showing one and the same interior, for example, it is evident that the Hermitage painting has a different angle of view and hence lacks the clerestory (second tier of windows) seen above the left-hand row of columns flanking the nave in the American work. Besides that, in the latter Neeffs made the windows above the arches of the side chapels shaded and blind, while in the Hermitage painting they appear transparent and flooded with daylight. The figures here were the work of Frans Francken III.