View of Oudezijds Voorburgwal with the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam

Although Jan van der Heyden went down in history as the inventor of the fire engine and the streetlight, he was mainly a painter of Dutch cityscapes. Here, he has recorded the oldest part of Amsterdam: the Oude Kerk, or Old Church, on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal canal. Van der Heyden painted the details of the buildings with remarkable precision. The figures that enliven the cityscape were probably …