Hans Vredeman de Vries

(1527 Leeuwarden – 1606 ?)

It is astonishing that an authoritative monograph on the life and work of this versatile and prolific Renaissance genius – Vredeman de Vries worked as a painter, ornamental draughtsman, architect, and fortifications engineer – has yet to be written. A profound knowledge of the treatises of Vitruv and Serlio, the influence of the formal repertoire of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, and stylistic impulses by the Italian art of the Cinquecento form the basis for his highly personal inventions and ornamental designs, which exerted a powerful and lasting influence on the architecture and handicrafts of Northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.