Salomon De Bray's Architectura Moderna: Biography and Manifesto 'Hendrick de Keyser was for our country what a Leon Baptista Alberti was for Italy, Pierre Lescot for France and Inigo Jones for England-the initiator of the improved mode of...
moreSalomon De Bray's Architectura Moderna: Biography and Manifesto 'Hendrick de Keyser was for our country what a Leon Baptista Alberti was for Italy, Pierre Lescot for France and Inigo Jones for England-the initiator of the improved mode of architecture, in accordance with the proportions of the ancients (as far as they were then known) and adapted to Vitruvius.' 1 Kramm could make this utterance in 1836 by sole virtue of the authority of Salomon de Bray, who came to the same conclusion, in a less succinct formulation, in Architectura Moderna (1631). The significance of this judgment lies in de Bray's position as virtually the only one of his contemporaries to see in Hendrick de Keyser an important renovator of Dutch architecture (p. 7). Van Mander, Buchelius, Gerbier, Hooft, Vondel, Jan Vos and later writers like Gerard de Lairesse speak and write of de Keyser as a sculptor of genius, but they barely mention his accomplishments as an architect. 2 Nor is that all. Architectura Moderna was the first original treatise on architecture written in Dutch since Hans Vredeman de Vries' publications. There is reason enough to suppose that de Bray, writing a biography of Hendrick de Keyser, seized the opportunity to construct, for the benefit of the rulers and officials of Holland, a theoretical foundation for architecture and for the position of the architect, in particular. This would also explain the dual nature of the book, which is at one and the same time a biography of de Keyser and a manifesto for modern architecture. The scheme is original in more than one respect. The treatises of Serlio and Vignola-available in Holland also in translations (Pieter Coecke van Aelst) and adaptations (Hans Bloem, Hans Vredeman de Vries)-are put together quite differently. 3 The essence of these treatises is the system of the five orders, which are illustrated with examples from Roman antiquity and the Italian 15th and 16th centuries. They were intended first and foremost for architects and stonemasons, and are geared to practice. Architectura Moderna too has a theoretical section, with illustrations of a number of buildings to underscore its points. The extensive 'To the Reader,' however (p. 1-5), is no tractate on the orders but a plea for architecture as 'konstige Bouwinge,' i.e. construction based on mathematical regularity. The plates are drawn not from ancient architecture, but from 'the buildings of this, our age [because] to my mind the Forms of the Ancients can be utilized rightly and well, and with excellent reason, as adornment and ennoblement, but to imitate each and very one of her building forms is, as I have said, unfeasible and impractical' (p. 11). De Bray chose his title, Architectura Moderna ofte Bouwinghe van onsen tyt (Architectura Moderna or Architecture of our age), in deliberate contrast to that of Vredeman de Vries' magnum opus, Architectura, Oder Bauung der Antiquen auss dem Vitruvius (1577). It is this that gives Architectura Moderna, as distinct from the translations of Serlio, Vignola, Scamozzi and Palladio, its uniqueness: it was written with the intention of acquainting the civic governments of Holland with a new way of building-oriented to Vitruvius and the Italian theoreticians, but, in the work of Hendrick de Keyser, adapted in form to Dutch habits of building. 4 De Bray's intention to make more of his Architectura Moderna than a mere description of Hendrick de Keyser's buildings is apparent even in his introduction, which is nothing more or less than a closely constructed and well documented declaration of policy for architecture. Following Vitruvius (and the Italian theorists from Alberti on), de Bray speaks of architecture as a 'konstige Bouwinghe,' as a science with fixed laws and founded on proportion and harmony. 5 In his attempt to demonstrate the 'antiquity,' 'truth or certainty' and 'worthiness' of architecture in that sense, he arrives at some surprising positions. The high aspirations of architecture Salomon de Bray, Architectura moderna ofte bouwinge van onsen tyt in the Amsterdam 'stee-fabrique' (department of public works). 9 The 'truth' of architecture lies in Necessitas (need) and Ratio (reason), concepts that answer more or less precisely to the distinction between 'ordinary and common carpentry' and 'decorative and artful construction.' The incentive to build, the overall groundplan and general division of the structure are born out of need (protection, isolation); dispositio, symmetria and proportio, on the other hand, are the original contribution of human reason, following the example of nature. The five orders are nothing but codified variants of the rules invented by various peoples at different times. The 'truth' of 'artful architecture' is ordained by Scripture: de Bray cites the locus classicus, (Exodus 35:31): 'And he hath filled him [Bezaleel] with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; and to devise curious works.' Behind the use of this verse lay a train of thought first formulated by Francesco Giorgio in his pamphlet De harmonia mundi totius (Venice 1525), where the proportions of the buildings described in the Old Testament are analyzed in the hope of deriving their dectated numerical ratios. 10 The theme is picked up by Philibert de l'Orme and later by Scamozzi. 11 In this instance, however, de Bray resorted directly to Villalpando's In Ezechielem Explanationes, where the divine inspiration of the architect is contrasted with the acquirable knowledge and scientific training Vitruvius demands of the architect.