INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION

Very little is known about Jan (or Hans, as he is often called) Vredeman de Vries, the architect-painter-engraver whose impact and influence throughout Northern Europe was to be so marked. We know that he was born in 1527 in Leeuwaarden, a town in Dutch Friesland. He was trained as a painter, but soon became interested in architecture, at the time when the great Italian Renaissance movement finally reached the Netherlands. For a while he lived in Antwerp, but had to flee from the Duke of Alba’s edict in 1570 against heresy and heretics at the height of the Spanish war. He went back to Antwerp a few years later, then worked in Germany as an architect, tried to form a painters’ guild in Danzig, later turned up at the famous court of the Emperor Rudolph II in Prague and finally returned to Holland, where he lived with his painter-son Paul. The date of his death is uncertain, probably around 1604, at the time of the publication of this book.

Vredeman’s unsettled life is a true reflection of the turbulent time he lived in–particularly turbulent in his native country, which had to fight so long and so hard for its religious freedom and national independence. His work is an equally true reflection of the artistic cross currents of his time: Northern and Southern elements, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Mannerism are all represented in a powerful combination expressive of the Netherlands of the late sixteenth century. And since the Netherlands were in many ways the center of the Northern Renaissance, Vredeman can certainly be considered a principal messenger of the new style throughout Germany, Scandinavia and even the British Isles.

Vredeman worked as an architect, but no building known surely to be his

has survived. His paintings–many of architectural vistas–are of historical interest, but not much more. His true and great importance rests on his numerous engravings, in which he opened new avenues of architectural invention and architectural representation. His books are fantasies and textbooks, dreams and pattern-books for apprentices, avant-garde messages and popular pictures–all at the same time. From 1555 to his death the indefatigable master produced publication after publication on architectural topics, the flow of which did not cease even at his death, since restrikes and new editions continued to appear from Amsterdam and Antwerp. His early engravings deal with scrolls, cartouches, grotesques and arabesques. He then turned to the five orders of architecture–as we know, a great preoccupation of his time. His attempt to popularise classic forms in the North, which was slow to accept them, earned him the name of "Flemish Vitru-vius." In 1565 his first series on gardens appeared: formal designs which had a most definite influence on landscape architecture. His early attempts in perspective (1568) were not successful (this series has erroneously been taken for the first edition of his later book). His manneristic architectural fantasies appeared under the title Variae Architecturae Formae in 1601.

His last and greatest work is his Perspective (or, as he calls it in the subtitle, the "most famous art of eyesight"), published in The Hague and in Leiden in 1604–1605 by the great publishing house of Hondius. The book is dedicated to Prince Maurice of Nassau, Stadholder of Holland and Zeeland, head of the newly established independent country, younger son of the famous William the Silent. It consists of two parts, 49 plates in the first (33/34 being a double plate) and 24 in the second, with short comments on each plate, the whole introduced by a preface of only a few words, since, as Vredeman charmingly says, he did not want to be tiresome or tedious to his readers, but would let his illustrations speak for themselves.

The rules of perspective were, of course, by then nothing new. They had been formulated in the fifteenth century in Italy by Piero della Francesca, Leon Battista Alberti and others, had been refined in the sixteenth century by Serlio and Vignola and were thoroughly familiar to Leonardo, Raphael and all the other great Italian painters. In Germany Albrecht Dürer had worked with perspective, and it is Dürer on whom Vredeman, according to his own statement, based much of his knowledge.

The basic principles from which Vredeman proceeds seem quite obvious. They consist in the establishment of vanishing points into which all lines, which in actual fact are parallel to each other, converge. All vanishing points rest on a vanishing line or horizon line (that is, assuming that we are looking straight ahead, not upward or downward). The forward vanishing point, or, as he calls it, the "eye point," need not be in the center, but can be to the right or left of center, depending on the position of the viewer. Vredeman then reiterates the fundamental rule of all perspective. As he puts it: whatever is above the horizon cannot be seen from above, and whatever is below the horizon cannot be seen from below. He establishes a gridwork of five linear components into which, to achieve an illusion of space, all objects can be placed. These five linear components are:

1. The base line that defines the level on which the imaginary viewer or painter stands.

2. The perpendicular lines that frame the whole system.

3. The horizon line, already mentioned.

4. The parallel lines, or lines of foreshortening, that converge at the "eye point" or central vanishing point.

5. The diagonal or oblique lines that converge at distance points, or secondary vanishing points.

Vredeman also states that, throughout his book, he has assumed the unchanging eye level of a rather small-sized man, five and a half feet high–an assumption not borne out by some of his plates (I-14, I-16), which appear to represent a far higher angle of vision. This man, incidentally, appears in Plate I-30 in person–as both the viewer and viewed.

Vredeman, like most other masters of perspective, also has his viewer look up into interior architectural space, into a dome or a vault (as in Plates I-37 and I-38) or down a many-tiered stairwell (I-39). Exciting views result. Here the rules of perspective are, of course, somewhat differently applied. Only one vanishing point and no horizon line is needed, and this vanishing point has nothing to do with eye level, but depends only on the position of the viewer below or above, and the direction in which he is looking.

The beauty of the plates and the ingenuity and clarity of Vredeman’s demonstrations are self-evident. Even to the present-day enquirer they still clearly reveal the elements of perspective. Beyond this, there is also his vivid architectural imagination, as in the Renaissance fantasies of Plates I-46 and II-10, in the lovely Gothic interior of Plate I-47 and in the exquisite medieval townscapes of Plates II-14 and II-15. It is with these designs that Vredeman de Vries will continue to delight those who turn to him, as he has throughout the centuries.

ADOLF K. PLACZEK

Avery Library

Columbia University

1967

Translation of Latin title page (facing page):

PERSPECTIVE

That is, the Most famous art of eyesight, which looks upon or through objects, on a painted wall, panel or canvas; in which are shown certain ancient as well as modern buildings, Temples or Shrines, Palaces, Private Apartments, Porticos, Streets, Promenades, Gardens, Marketplaces, Roads and other such constructions, resting on their fundamental lines, their basis being clearly explained with descriptions; an art of the greatest utility and necessity for all Painters, Engravers, Sculptors, Metalworkers, Architects, Designers, Masons, Cabinetmakers, Carpenters and all lovers of the arts who may wish to apply themselves to this art with greater pleasure and less pain.

By fan Vredeman de Vries [the Frisian, or Frieslander].

ENGRAVED AND LEGALLY PUBLISHED BY

HENRICUS HONDIUS

LEIDEN