The Low Countries at the Crossroads

This book focuses on the diffusion of architectural inventions from the Low Countries to other parts of Europe from the late fifteenth until the end of the seventeenth century. Multiple pathways connected the architecture of the Low Countries with the world, but a coherent analysis of the phenomenon is still missing. Written by an international team of specialists, the book offers case-studies illustrating various mechanisms of transmission, such as the migration of building masters and sculptors who worked as architects abroad, networks of foreign patrons inviting Netherlandish artists, printed models and the role of foreign architects who visited the Low Countries for professional reasons. Its geographical scope is as broad as the period under review and includes all European regions where Netherlandish elements were found: from Spain to Scandinavia and from Scotland to Transylvania.

Konrad Ottenheym is professor of architectural history at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He is specialised in the architecture of the Northern Low Countries and its international relationships.

Krista De Jonge is professor of architectural history at Leuven University, Belgium. She is well known for her publications on the architecture of the Southern Low Countries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in a European perspective.