Transept of Aarhus Cathedral

As a student of Eckersberg, Købke integrated direct observation from nature into strict perspectival views, as seen in two church interiors. In the drawing of Saint Canute’s Cathedral, the artist represents the church’s rows of pews, Gothic columns, and vaulted ceiling using perspectival construction. His interest in the cathedral as a motif was likely aroused at the Royal Academy, where medieval architecture was presented as distinctively Danish. While he was a student Købke visited Aarhus, a market town on the Jutland peninsula, in 1829, and made an unusual view of its cathedral from the church’s transept rather than the more renowned nave. This print after Købke’s painting of the subject includes figures examining gravestones and the high altar, although the structure’s dramatic height serves as the main subject of the composition.