Born in
Leeuwarden and raised in
Friesland, in 1546 Vredeman de Vries went to Amsterdam and
Kampen. In 1549 he moved to
Mechelen where the Superior Court was seating. Sebastian, his brother, was the organist in the local church. Vredeman de Vries designed ornaments for merry parades of
Charles V and
Philip II. Studying
Vitruvius and
Sebastiano Serlio, (translated by his teacher
Pieter Coecke van Aelst), he became an internationally known specialist in perspective. He continued his career in
Antwerp, where he was appointed city architect and
fortification engineer. After 1585 he fled the city because of the Spanish occupation by
Alessandro Farnese. As a Protestant, he had to leave the city within two years. Vredeman de Vries moved to
Frankfurt and worked in
Wolfenbüttel, designing a fortification and a new lay-out of the city for
Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After his death the project was cancelled and Hans worked in
Hamburg,
Danzig (1592),
Prague (1596) and
Amsterdam (1600). On his trips Vredeman was accompanied by his son
Paul and
Hendrick Aerts, both painters. Vredeman de Vries tried to get an appointment at the
University of Leiden in 1604. Vredeman de Vries designed the
Great Bed of Ware which is now housed in the
Victoria and Albert Museum. The bed is famously large, at around twice the size of a modern double-bed. His son
Salomon was also a painter;
Jacob Vredeman de Vries a
kapellmeister and composer. It is not known when and where Hans Vredeman de Vries died; however, it is recorded that his son Paul was living in Hamburg when he inherited. == References ==