Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527 – c. 1607) was a Dutch Renaissance architect, painter, and engineer. Vredeman de Vries is known for his publication in 1583 on garden design and his books with many examples on ornaments (1565) and perspective (1604). The Vredeman de Vries family included a number of artists and musicians.

Biography

Born in

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of th ...

and raised in

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of F ...

, in 1546 Vredeman de Vries went to Amsterdam and Kampen. In 1549 he moved to

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

where the Superior Court was seating. Sebastian, his brother, was the organist in the local church. Vredeman de Vries designed ornaments for merry parades of

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Inf ...

and Philip II. Studying

Vitruvius Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled ''De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribute ...

and

Sebastiano Serlio Sebastiano Serlio (6 September 1475 – c. 1554) was an Italian Mannerist architect, who was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau. Serlio helped canonize the classical orders of architecture in his influential treat ...

, (translated by his teacher Pieter Coecke van Aelst), he became an internationally known specialist in perspective. He continued his career in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, where he was appointed city architect and

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere' ...

engineer. After 1585 he fled the city because of the Spanish occupation by Alessandro Farnese. As a Protestant, he had to leave the city within two years. Vredeman de Vries moved to

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...

and worked in

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest ...

, designing a fortification and a new lay-out of the city for Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After his death the project was cancelled and Hans worked in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Danzig (1592),

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a tempera ...

(1596) and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

(1600). On his trips Vredeman was accompanied by his son Paul and Hendrick Aerts, both painters. Vredeman de Vries tried to get an appointment at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of ...

in 1604. Vredeman de Vries designed the

Great Bed of Ware The Great Bed of Ware is an extremely large oak four poster bed, carved with marquetry, that was originally housed in the White Hart Inn in Ware, England. Built by Hertfordshire carpenter Jonas Fosbrooke about 1590, the bed measures 3.38m long ...

which is now housed in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...

. The bed is famously large, at around twice the size of a modern double-bed. Bed of Ware

His son Salomon was also a painter; Jacob Vredeman de Vries a

kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

and composer. It is not known when and where Hans Vredeman de Vries died; however, it is recorded that his son Paul was living in Hamburg when he inherited.

References

* *

Bibliography

* Hans Jantzen, ''Das Niederländische Architekturbild'', Braunschweig, Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1910 * Bernard G. Maillet, ''La Peinture Architecturale des Ecoles du Nord: les Intérieurs d'Eglises 1580-1720'', Pandora Publishers Wijnegem, 2012, * Christopher P. Heue, ''The City Rehearsed Object, architecture, and print in the worlds of Hans Vredeman de Vries '',

External links

Architectura website of the Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance at Tours (France)

University of Heidelberg
28 Prints from "Pictores, statuarii, architecti, latomi, et quicunque principum magnificorumque virorum memoriae aeternae inservitis, adeste" (1620)
Ornaments by Vredeman de Vries in a museum
in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

Hans Vredeman de Vries on ArtcyclopediaVermeer and The Delft School
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Hans Vredeman de Vries {{DEFAULTSORT:Vredeman de Vries, Hans 1527 births 1600s deaths 16th-century Dutch architects People from Leeuwarden Renaissance architects Dutch Mannerist painters Frisian painters Mannerist architects