Key, Lieven de (c.1560–1627). Born in Gent (Ghent), he settled in Haarlem, The Netherlands, in 1590, where he became Town Mason and Carpenter. With Hendrick de Keyser he was the most prominent architect working in the Renaissance style in that part of Europe. He designed the façade of the Town Hall in Leiden (1594–7), the scrolled strapwork gables, downward tapering pilasters, and obelisks of which show a pronounced influence from the pattern-books of Vredeman de Vries. He also designed the spectacular stepped-gabled Butchers' Hall, Haarlem (1601–5), with an exterior of brick with stone dressings, the whole much decorated with scrolls, festoons, and cartouches derived from de Vries, used with skill and originality. He built the exotic tower for the Nieuwe Kerk of St Anna (1613—destroyed), the front of the side-wing of the Town Hall (1620), and the Weigh House (1598), all in Haarlem.

Bibliography

Rosenberg, Slive, & and Ter Kuile (1977);
Vermeulen (1941);
van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)

de Key, Lieven (c.1560–1627). See key.