ABSTRACT
Though the Dutch Republic did not become an outstanding leader in architectural design, there were highly respected architects at work there whose buildings might well have been considered worthy of recording. Among the subjects that took an honored place in Dutch painting of the seventeenth century, were realistic interior views of buildings, and town scenes. Gerard Houckgeest, who earlier had painted only imaginary scenes, would have turned his attention to the interiors of real churches without the inspiration of Pieter Saenredam's works. The brilliant Emanuel de Witte also became a specialist in realistic church interiors during his period in Delft, where he lived for about a decade beginning in 1641. Johannes Vermeer's large townscape, the renowned View of Delft, was created about ten years later than Carel Fabritius' town view. Gerrit Berckheyde of Haarlem painted town views from the 1660s to 1697, Born, in 1638, he became a member of the Haarlem guild in 1660 and lived until 1698.
