The drawing was made in July 1636 as part of a series of the church that Saenredam began in June of that year and extended to January 1637. Four and a half years later Saenredam painted the same view - a picture now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. There are interesting differences between the drawing and painting with the former stressing the Romanesque features while the latter highlights the Gothic additions to the church. Typical for Saenredam's drawings is that he always indicated the vanishing-point, here seen on the last pillar on the right. Saenredam has deliberately distorted the dimensions of the architecture to increase the sense of monumental grandeur and scale. The Mariakerk was demolished in the nineteenth century.