Jacob Balthasar Peeters

[6] He may possibly be identified with the Jacobus Peeters constschilder (painter) who makes together with his wife Barbara Christina Witten a will on 7 June 1699, while living on Kipdorp near the St. James Church.

[2] A pair of paintings depicting the interiors of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp and signed and dated 1721 are evidence that the artist was still alive in that year.

[3] Jacob Balthasar Peeters was a specialist painter of imaginary Renaissance and Baroque palaces and paintings of existing churches.

Peeters would place among these imaginary or existing structures and outdoor settings elegant figures, usually wearing exotic hats and costumes, together with their, often black, pages and with dogs running around.

A pair of paintings depicting Fantastic courtly architecture with staffage (Hampel Munich auction of 25 September 2014, lot 679) constitute a collaborative effort of Peeters and Hendrik van Minderhout.

[10] The aforementioned pair of pictures, which were made to be hung next to each other, demonstrate the fantastic, almost surreal, aspects of Peeters' imaginary views.

One of the canvases provides an idealized view of a palace with round arched loggias supported by columns and the other of a courtly façade with a portico and a balustrade on top.

Each painting continues onto a view of an idealized park landscape with a large pond on which float pleasure ships with swans as figureheads.

One pair of works in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen dated 1714 depicts the interior of the Jesuit St. Charles Borromeo Church in Antwerp.

In the fire, the interior of the church, including ceiling murals painted by Peter Paul Rubens, was destroyed.