Interior of the St Bavokerk in Haarlem, Seen from the South Ambulatory, Looking across the Choir to the North Ambulatory and the Large Organ

The great organ in this view had just been rebuilt when Saenredam came to draw it. Made in 1463 by an organ builder from Utrecht, it had been restored and enlarged in the early 1630s. Saenredam sketched this view of the choir on 30 August 1635. Some of the old Catholic decoration had survived with it. The open shutter still shows the Resurrection of Christ, painted in 1465, and the lettering on the case quotes Psalm 150, praise him with stringed instruments and organs. He laid real gold and silver leaf on the pipes to make the metal glint, rare in Dutch painting of his time. Far below, a woman with two children sits at the foot of a pillar, tiny against the stone. He signed and dated the smaller organ in the side chapel, and finished the panel on 15 April 1636.