A capriccio with elegant figures in an arched colonnade, a town square and a church beyond

Hans Vredeman de Vries is best known for his widely published architectural treatises and perspectival studies but he also produced paintings such as this capriccio, decorative works intended for the walls of patrician homes throughout the southern Netherlands. Documents record early trompe l'oeil wall paintings by Vredeman de Vries, none of which survive, and he is known to have painted architectural settings for history painters such as Michiel Coxcie. The majority of Vredeman de Vries' independent paintings date from the last decades of his career and, like this work, reflect his deeply academic interest in perspective. In this scene of a fantasy Italianate city, the orthogonals lead the eye to the door of the cathedral at the far end of the square. Gothic and Renaissance motifs are freely mixed and elegant figures and decorative elements such as the fountain in the foreground enliven the carefully constructed space.
While Hans Vredeman de Vries was the most important Flemish designer and architectural theorist of his generation, his actual building achievements were few. In Antwerp he is attributed with the belvedere (1565-67), erected below the van Straelen House in the Korte St. Annastraat and with the rebuilding of the gable (1578) of the House of the Four Winds in the Gildenkamerstraat. At Wolfenbüttel, where Vredeman de Vries's theories visibly influenced the organization of the town, the only building directly attributed to him is the chancellery.