"Forum modernis aedificiis"
Paul Vredeman de Vries
vor 1606
The present sheet forms a striking contrast to the
other city views in this exhibition. It is neither an
entirely imaginary vision as in [7], nor a sort of stage
set as in [22], nor a precise rendering of a specific
town as in [8]. Drawn with the pen in a clean and
crisp manner, a town square is framed by buildings
in Gothic style. Figures circulate, but not in true interaction—
more like forerunners of the mannequins
in Giorgio de Chirico’s (1888–1978) pittura metafisica:
we would hardly expect the beggar’s outstretched
hand to be filled. A sense of the uncanny is also
conveyed by the architecture. Gothic architecture
was a common sight in European cities around 1600,
but—unlike in this drawing—mostly among narrow
streets crowded with people.
Such apparent oddity can be explained by
considering the context. The drawing was made
as a design, with its vanishing lines and vanishing
point still visible: the latter is placed slightly left of
center in the arched entrance of the town hall–like
building. Pentimenti appear where the final pen
lines deviate from the underlying chalk sketch in
the placement of figures and buildings (fig. 1). Some
have been slightly moved, such as the beggar or
the turret with the pent roof in the center, which
was formerly placed further to the right. In other
sections, as in the shaded pier to the left, contours
superimpose construction lines, both in pen
and ink.
Incised for transfer, the drawing served as
model for a print (fig. 2),1 titled Forum Modernis
Aedificiis (Marketplace of Modern Buildings) and
signed by the artist, the added inv. identifying Paul
Vredeman de Vries (1567–1616) as inventor of both
print and design. The print was published in 1606
by Hendrick Hondius I (1573–1650) in The Hague as
part of Architectura, a compendium of thirty-one
etchings.2 A late opus magnus of Paul’s father, Hans
Vredeman de Vries (1527–c. 1607), Architectura was
meant as a pattern book for artists and craftsmen,3
showing not real cities but imaginary scenographic
views.4 It became highly influential: by 1662, fifteen
editions had been published in four different
languages.
Paul, who had worked for his father for years,
managed the family workshop in Antwerp and
Amsterdam after Hans left for Hamburg in 1605.5
He played a key role in disseminating his father’s
ideas on perspective,6 and we may assume that he
also supervised the publication of the first edition
of Architectura. Altogether, Paul contributed eight
etchings including the title. His six extant designs
provide insight into his drawing style (fig. 3).7
Like a musician varying his leitmotif and
rehearsing his repertoire, Hans Vredeman de Vries,
and Paul in his wake, focused on perspective.8 They
treated it in different guises, one of which was the
“modern manner,” also known as Gothic architecture,
to which the last four prints in Architectura
are devoted.9 With these, the De Vrieses apparently
undertook a mission: to free the Gothic style from
the stigma of barbaric confusion that it had
suffered since its condemnation by Giorgio Vasari
(1511–1574). They did so by staging it within the
systematic clarity of perspective.10 Their efforts may
explain the hybrid and timeless aura of the present
city view.
1. Our drawing is not mentioned in the respective entry in
Fuhring (HD) 1997, 48, part 2:620.
2. Fuhring (HD) 1997, 48, part 2:228–37.
3. Fuhring (HD) 1997, 47, part 1:9.
4. On the term scenographic, with its intended allusion to the
theatrical, see Borggrefe 2002b, 135–36.
5. Fusenig and Vermet 2002, 165.
6. See Borggrefe 2002b, 148; Fusenig and Vermet 2002, 163.
7. Design for Hollstein (HD) 1952, 48:part 2, 236, no. 616; the
other designs for this five-piece group combining column orders
with the senses are housed in École nationale supérieure des
beaux-arts, Paris, Mas. 648, Mas. 2238–40.
8. On Hans Vredeman de Vries’s Perspective books,
see Heuer 2009, 165–210.
9. Hollstein (HD) 1952, 48:part 2, 237, nos. 621–23.
10. See Gnehm 2005, 191–94.
Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 15
Dass sich die perspektivische Architekturfantasie im 16. Jahrhundert zu einer neuen Bildgattung entwickelte, ist in erster Linie Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527 – 1607) zu verdanken. Seine Musterblätter und Stichfolgen waren in ganz Europa verbreitet. 1606 erschien bei Hendrik Hondius in Den Haag die 31-teilige Folge Architectura (Hollstein 593 – 623). An diesem einflussreichen Spätwerk – bis 1662 wurden 15 Auflagen in vier verschiedenen Sprachen publiziert – war sein Sohn Paul Vredeman de Vries als »Inventor« von acht Radierungen beteiligt. Fünf seiner gezeichneten Entwürfe befinden sich in Paris (École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Inv. Mas. 648, Mas. 2238–2240; Musée du Louvre, Collection de Rothschild, Inv. 3525 DR), die sechste Zeichnung ist hier besprochen: ein »Marktplatz mit modernen Gebäuden« als Vorlage zu Blatt LL (Hollstein 620). Zusammen mit drei weiteren Darstellungen »moderner«, also gotischer Architektur (Hollstein 621– 623) scheint das Motiv nicht ganz zu passen in ein Werk, das sich vornehmlich mit antiken Säulenordnungen befasst. Doch ist hier keine gewöhnliche mittelalterliche Stadt dargestellt, auch wenn sich Paul Vredeman für einzelne Motive offensichtlich von seinen Erinnerungen an seinen Aufenthalt in Prag (1596 – 1599) inspirieren ließ. Vielmehr handelt es sich um den Idealprospekt einer Stadt gemäß der Perspektivlehre seines Vaters. Fluchtlinien und der umkreiste Augpunkt sind gut zu erkennen – Letzterer ist wie auf einigen Stichen Hans Vredemans in einen Torbogen platziert. Mithilfe der klassischen Proportionslehre wurde die Gotik gezähmt und von ihrem seit Vasari geläufigen Stigma der »Unordentlichkeit« befreit (Gnehm 2005).
IIIFPermalinkhttps://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/objects/28760/forum-modernis-aedificiisImage Request
