Unity and Discontinuity

This study focuses on change and continuity within the architecture of the Southern and Northern Low Countries from 1530 to 1700. Instead of looking at both regions separately and stressing the stylistic differences between the classicist North and the baroque South, the book establishes a new, common history of architecture for both parts of the Low Countries during the 17th century. Their reception of Antiquity in the guise of the Italian Renaissance, first introduced in Court circles in the early 16th century, constituted the common heritage on which they built after the political separation. The book also reassesses the position of Netherlandish architecture in the international debate on the Renaissance north of the Alps. Contains 350 illustrations.