For Pieter Saenredam (1597-1665)
by 
michwo
|
Posted: Monday, November 4, 2019 Word Count: 100 Summary: He was born in Assendelft, then a country village 13 kilometres from Haarlem. He joined the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem in 1614 when he was living in Haarlem. Frans Hals joined in 1610. He finished his picture of the interior of Assendelft village church in October 1649. King Charles the First was beheaded on the 30th of January 1649. |
For Pieter Saenredam (1597-1665)
Your world, unlike your father’s, sensuous,
Was soaring, geometric, linear.
For some your appearance was sinister:
Big-headed, short and hunch-backed, tenuous
Your hold on them, your marriage prospects nil.
Just as well. Your art was time-consuming.
A country childhood stopped you being ill.
Piety you never looked like losing.
Your churches you are most remembered for
And chief among them surely Assendelft,
Your father’s gravestone Latined on the floor.
Not far from Haarlem then where Frans Hals helped
You, four years after him, to join the Guild.
The year you painted this a king was killed.
Your world, unlike your father’s, sensuous,
Was soaring, geometric, linear.
For some your appearance was sinister:
Big-headed, short and hunch-backed, tenuous
Your hold on them, your marriage prospects nil.
Just as well. Your art was time-consuming.
A country childhood stopped you being ill.
Piety you never looked like losing.
Your churches you are most remembered for
And chief among them surely Assendelft,
Your father’s gravestone Latined on the floor.
Not far from Haarlem then where Frans Hals helped
You, four years after him, to join the Guild.
The year you painted this a king was killed.