Cornelis Floris de Vriendt

Cornelis Floris de Vriendt (* 1514 in Antwerp, † October 20, 1575 ) was a Flemish sculptor and architect, and together with his brother Frans Floris instrumental in the formation of the northern Renaissance.

Life and work

Cornelis Floris was in 1538 master of the Guild of St. Luke. From a multi-year stay in Italy, he brought the grotesque as a decorative element, which he popularized through various publications for printmaking, painting, sculpture and architecture. In 1549 he was awarded first design jobs, specifically for wall tombs of the Duke and Anna Maria Dorothea of Prussia in Königsberg Cathedral. Later he created there and the wall grave for Duke Albrecht. In Schleswig Cathedral, he made from 1550-1552 the Cenotaph for King Frederick I of Denmark in strict Renaissance with Liegebetfigur and moderate decoration, a masterpiece of the genre open graves. The tomb of King Christian III. of Denmark in Roskilde was with his strict architectural structure of the model for the German and Nordic Hall tombs thereafter. In addition, several come tabernacle in which he the multi-story Gothic tower building with Renaissance elements combined (eg in St. Leonardus in Léau ), and rood screen (eg in the Cathedral in Tournai ) from his workshop.

As Antwerp in 1560 wrote out a competition for a new city hall, Cornelis Floris prevailed with a design composed into a gothic gable guild house as a buttress in a Florentine palazzo façade. On the ground floor rusticated, Main Level strict pilasters, about Balustradenloggia, cornice and gable roof. The plastic decoration ( Hermen, obelisks ) is limited to the gable. This town hall Floris created the influential throughout the Netherlands type. Built for his brother Frans house is as little as that obtained for the Flanders driver of the Hanseatic League, under the Counsel Heinrich Sudermann as a successor to the Hansekontor built by him in Bruges House of Easterlings in Antwerp (1893 burned ).

Floris style

The architectural element wins over the development of Cornelis Floris more and more the upper hand over the decorative, and by integrating all existing elements, a new universal style of decoration, the highest total and individual effect strives for. The Floris style was to include a collective term that many artists names. It refers to all the elements of the High Renaissance in the Netherlands. Cornelis Floris ' disciples and followers have this style not only in the Netherlands but also in Denmark and over the coastal countries of the Baltic Sea, northern Germany, until late spread to southern Germany. So, for example, refers also the elegant Renaissance arbor of the Cologne town hall to influence his workshop.