Getty Museum
Interior of a Gothic Church
Creator
Paul Juvenel the ElderGerman Artist · 1579–1643
All works by this person →Best known for his ceiling and facade paintings, Paul Juvenal the Elder received his early training from a Flemish portraitist and architectural painter. Early in his career he began to specialize in paintings of architectural interiors, often containing biblical figures, on copper. Sometime before 1613, he traveled to Italy, where he may have seen Adam Elsheimer's delicate landscapes on copper. J
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1629
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, blue and gray wash, and black chalk
- Culture
- German
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Paul Juvenal the Elder based this architectural vista on the Augustinian Church in Nuremberg, which was torn down in 1819. Large portions of the paper are left blank, which gives the architecture a sense of spaciousness suffused with light. Use of a thin-nibbed, sparsely inked pen, briefly sketched ornament, lack of figures, and fine, ruled lines further emphasize the building's verticality and space. Blue wash--more luminous and airy than the common brown wash--increases the soaring effect of the vaults and the interior's sunlit feeling. The color's decorative quality also complements the delicacy of the "fish bubble" vaulting. Juvenal made this drawing as a preparatory study for a 1611 painting on copper. Unlike most Northern European architectural painters, who drew directly on the panels they planned to paint, Juvenal often made perspectival "construction drawings" like this one.
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