As the Utrecht painters used light to heighten the effect of their paintings, so other Dutch
artists made it in large measure the subject of their art. Within Vermeer’s own town of Delft, there were several painters of light. One of these was Emanuel de Witte, (Interior of a Church”, by Emmanuel de Witte c. 1660 pictured above) a misanthropic (disliking humankind and avoiding human society) atheist whose intellectual pleasure nevertheless was depicting the insides of churches.
Another Dutch painter of light was Pieter Saenredam. A hunchback who concerned himself almost exclusively with church interiors because they were open places where light fell through clear glass windows onto clean white walls. In the work shown he has added a personal detail, the tomb of his father.
The World of Vermeer (1632-1675) Time Life Books
Because of his personal home tragedies de Witte hanged himself from a canal bridge in 1692. The rope broke and de Witte drowned.
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