Dilapidated, overcrowded and cold

In the seventeenth century the old city hall had fallen into a state of disrepair. It was overcrowded, cold and crawling with vermin eating away at the administration. Time for a new city hall and the enlargement of the Dam. The city authorities commissioned Van der Ulft to paint two complementary and well-matched paintings, one of the old city hall and one of the new. When he started on the painting of the old city hall it no longer existed, it was destroyed by fire in 1652. He accordingly based it on a painting by Pieter Saenredam, including the painter’s mistakes.