Architecture as profession
The origins of architectural practice in the Low Countries in the fifteenth century
By (author) Merlijn Hurx
Fifteenth-century Florence is generally considered the cradle of the modern architect. There, for the first time since Antiquity, the Vitruvian concept which distinguishes between builder and designer was recognised in architectural theory, causing a fundamental rupture in architectural practice. In this well-established narrative Northern Europe only followed a century later when, along with the diffusion of Italian treatises and the introduction of the all’antica style, a new type of architect began to replace traditional gothic masters. However, historiography has largely overlooked the important transformations in building organisation that laid the foundations for our modern architectural production, such as the advent of affluent contractors, public tenders, and specialised architectural designers, all of which happened in fifteenth-century Northern Europe. Drawing on a wealth of new source material from the Low Countries, this book offers a new approach to the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period by providing an alternative interpretation to the predominantly Italo-centric perspective of the current literature, and its concomitant focus on style and on Vitruvian theory.
Fifteenth-century Florence is generally considered the cradle of the modern architect. There, for the first time since Antiquity, the Vitruvian concept which distinguishes between builder and designer was recognised in architectural theory, causing a fundamental rupture in architectural practice. In this well-established narrative Northern Europe only followed a century later when, along with the diffusion of Italian treatises and the introduction of the all’antica style, a new type of architect began to replace traditional gothic masters. However, historiography has largely overlooked the important transformations in building organisation that laid the foundations for our modern architectural production, such as the advent of affluent contractors, public tenders, and specialised architectural designers, all of which happened in fifteenth-century Northern Europe. Drawing on a wealth of new source material from the Low Countries, this book offers a new approach to the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period by providing an alternative interpretation to the predominantly Italo-centric perspective of the current literature, and its concomitant focus on style and on Vitruvian theory.
- By (author) Merlijn Hurx
Other Titles in this Series
Unity and Discontinuity
Architectural Relationships between the Southern and Northern Low Countries (1530-1700)
Volume 5
The Reception of P.P. Rubens’s ‘Palazzi di Genova’ during the 17th Century in Europe
Questions and Problems
Volume 1
The Low Countries at the Crossroads
Netherlandish Architecture as an Export Product in Early Modern Europe (1480-1680)
Volume 8
Building the Presence of the Prince
The Institutions Responsible for the Construction and Management of the Buildings of European Courts (14th-17th centuries)
Volume 14
Early Modern Urbanism and the Grid
Town Planning in the Low Countries in International Context. Exchanges in Theory and Practice 1550-1800
Volume 10
Trade in Good Taste
Relations in Architecture and Culture between the Dutch Republic and the Baltic World in the Seventeenth Century
Volume 2
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