I pointed my camera to the ceiling of Sint Jan Cathedral (Saint John) to get a detail shot of a rib vault. A man approached me and began to talk about the ceiling, first in Dutch and then in English. The man, J. Dirks, had done extensive sketches and research on the older ceiling paintings from the 1500s. The older paintings had been covered with white paint during the reformation and then in the 1800s someone had painted a vine design over the white paint.
In broken English, he showed me where to point my camera to find the people and animals that had been revealed through restoration to once again look down upon the parishioners and tourists below. He allowed me to look at his drawings, photographs, and notes he had on the subject. He was very kind and spent time showing me the ceiling in the nave and one of the wings. He discussed the history, how part of the ceiling had burnt down and therefore had none of the paintings from the 16th century. Due to the curvature of the ceiling we had to walk to different parts of the chapel in order to see the different designs. I had to hold the camera very still and try to rest it on the pews in order to get a discernible picture of the far off images in the dim church. For someone who is willing to look, there are secrets in the ceiling of the Sint Jan church in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.
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