Architectural Caprice with Figures - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Architectural Caprice with Figures

Vredeman de Vries, Hans

Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, 15/06/1526-Hamburg, Germany, 16/09/1609

Oil on oak panel

84.5 x 118.5 cm

With a monogram and VRIESE (lower centre on a column base)

1568

Third quarter of the 16th century

89/131

Acquired in 1989

The early 16th century witnessed the appearance of the architectural caprice, a new pictorial genre devoted to the fantastic representation of buildings and cities that resorted to the laws of perspective to create a world that was at once rational and idealised. Vredeman de Vries would in fact become one of the masters of such representations. The pronounced perspective of the building on the left of this composition introduces the viewer into a palatial architecture that evokes certain classical constructions in northern Italy. The sturdy marble columns organise the space and guide the gaze towards the gardens and pergolas that lead to the vanishing point in the background. In this sophisticated atmosphere several figures and couples of courtiers, rendered perhaps by another painter, succumb to music and to gallant attitudes.

Vredeman de Vries was a painter, an architect and a designer of gardens, interiors and ephemeral architecture such as the triumphal arch for the entrance of Emperor Charles V in Antwerp in 1549. Between 1596 and 1598 he worked at the court in Prague, where he decorated several halls and designed fountains for the imperial palace of Rudolph II. A connoisseur of classic architecture thanks to the treatises drawn up by Vitruvius and Serlio, De Vries was also the author of significant writings on architecture and perspective which, alongside his prints, would exert a great influence on painters of architecture from the 16th to the 19th centuries. [Marta García Maruri]

Selected bibliography

  • Gállego, Julián. "Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoak eskuratutako antxinako artelanak, 1980-1992 = Adquisiciones de arte antíguo en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1980-1992 [Folleto]", Guía de Exposiciones, n° 181. 1993. n° cat. 19.
  • Castañer López, Xesqui. Pinturas y pintores flamencos, holandeses y alemanes en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Fundación Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa, 1995. pp. 137-139, n° cat. 47.
  • Zugaza, Miguel ... [et al.]. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : maestros antiguos y modernos. Bilbao, Fundación Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa = Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa Fundazioa, 1999. p. 81.
  • Zugaza, Miguel ... [et al.]. Maestros antiguos y modernos en las colecciones del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2001. p. 30.
  • Hans Vredeman de Vries und die Renaissance im Norden [Cat. exp.]. München, Hirmer, 2002. pp. 146, 193, fig. 19. (Con el título Palast mit Belvedere und höfischem Liebesgarten, y atribuido a Hans VREDEMAN DE VRIES). N° cat. 17
  • La ciutat que mai no existí : arquitectures fantàstiques en l'art occidental [Cat. exp.]. Barcelona, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona ; Diputació de Barcelona, 2003. pp. 29 y 81. (Con el título Arquitectura fantástica amb personatges, y atribuido a Hans VREDEMAN DE VRIES)
  • La ciudad que nunca existió : arquitecturas fantásticas en el arte occidental [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2004. s. p., n° cat. 37.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 36.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 36.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 36.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 36, n° cat. 22.
  • Arquitecturas pintadas : del Renacimiento al siglo XVIII [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza ; Fundación Caja Madrid, 2011. pp. 209, 215.
  • Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 36, n° cat. 22.
  • Diéguez Rodríguez, Ana. Precisiones al Catálogo de la Pintura Flamenca del siglo XVI en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [inédito]. 2013. pp. 179-184, n° cat. 29.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 36.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 36.
  • Maestros : Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao . Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 32-33, il.
  • Masters : Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 32-33, il.
  • Maisuak : Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 32-33, il.
  • Maîtres : Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bilbao. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 32-33, il.
  • 110 Años 110 Obras [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 70-71, sin n° cat.
  • 110 Ans 110 Oeuvres [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 70-71, sin n° cat.
  • 110 Urte 110 Artelan [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 70-71, sin n° cat.
  • 110 Years 110 Works [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 70-71, sin n° cat.