ABSTRACT
When Hans Vredeman de Vries depicted the building around 1565 (Figure 2.1)
accolades for its size and the swiftness of its construction had already begun to
stream in. “Unparalleled in Europe . . . a wonder of the whole earth,” wrote the
Italian mapmaker Virgilius Bononiensis.6 In Vredeman’s giant three-block woodcut,
known today only through a unique impression in Stockholm, the building is shown
dwarfing groups of human passersby, its splendid Serlian facade juxtaposed sharply with
a recessed avenue to its south. Twin obelisks atop its central elevation bear the tiny
inscription “SPQA”—Senatus Populusque Antwerpensia-a boastful nod to the example
of Republican Rome. Unlike other contemporary images of the town hall, Vredeman’s
sheet refused to isolate the building as a frontal stage, but instead framed it within the
urban fabric, nestling it among other pakhuysen, or warehouses, on the central square.
