Pieter Neefs the Elder

Pieter Neefs the Elder was a Flemish painter based in Antwerp, born around 1578 and dead sometime between 1656 and 1661, who specialised in architectural paintings of church interiors. Influenced by the Dutch painters Hendrick van Steenwijck the Elder and the Younger, he became a master of Antwerp's Guild of St Luke in 1610, and his particular contribution to the genre was the nighttime church interior lit by multiple sources of light. Rather than recording real buildings exactly, he invented imaginary churches with elaborate architectural detail, often working with other artists such as Frans Francken the Younger, who added the human figures to his vast receding spaces. His sons Lodewijk and Pieter the Younger continued the family's tradition of architectural painting. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/