03 — ARTWORK
The Drawbridge
- MEDIUM
- Oil on panel, 36 x 45 cm
- TYPE
- Landscape
PALETTE
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THIS REPRODUCTION
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CURRENT LOCATION · Rijksmuseum
- FILE
- 1300 × 1023 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Jan van der Heyden is best known for his townscapes, featuring cities such as Amsterdam, Delft, Brussels, and Cologne. In contrast to Gerrit berckheyde, he did not limit himself to more or less accurate renderings of reality. He regularly included in a single picture various buildings that are actually located in different parts of a city, or in different cities altogether.
A city canal dominates this scene with a wooden drawbridge. The buildings along the quay are reminiscent of Amsterdam canal houses but they cannot be identified. In the foreground, the corner archThe pointed arch is widely regarded as the main identifiable feature of Gothic architecture (distinct from the round arch of the Romanesque period). The three most common Gothic arches are the Equilateral, Lancet and Tudor. supported by columns somewhat resembles that of the Old Amsterdam Town Hall, which burnt down in 1652. That building, however, was nowhere near the water.
OTHER WORKS BY JAN VAN DER HEYDEN
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-ra23c9a18c97e8c,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {The Drawbridge by HEYDEN, Jan van der},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/heyden-jan-van-der-r01014546166af8/the-drawbridge-ra23c9a18c97e8c},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.