Lambert de Vos

Lambert de Vos (fl 1563 – 1574) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman from Mechelen who travelled to Constantinople to work for the diplomatic mission of the Habsburg Empire.

His drawings serve as an important source of information on the dress of people living in the Turkish empire and the architecture of Constantinople during his residence.

It is recorded that he made in 1574 a Costume Book for Karel Rijm, Emperor Maximilian II's ambassador to the Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman Empire.

The Costume Book of 1574 is usually associated with two illustrations: the portrait of Sultan Selim II and a long bridal train drawn over several leaves.

[6] Under Selim II's predecessor, Suleiman the Magnificent, this procession had become a grand pageant that represented the splendor of the Empire at its zenith, as shown in a print dated 1553 made after a drawing by the Flemish artist Pieter Coecke van Aelst who had visited Constantinople in 1533.

With the rise of the Ottoman Empire both militarily and politically, the European nations had an interest in learning how to deal with this new power.

[2] These depictions familiarized Europeans with the exotic ways of the Turks and gave them clues to how Ottoman society worked.

[9] Not only did they serve as guides for diplomats and other visitors to the Sultan's court, but they also satisfied the curiosity and quelled the fear that westerners felt for the Ottomans.

Lambert Wyts was a Flemish courtier who left a diary (kept at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) of his 1572 voyage to Constantinople which contains a series of drawings in the nature of those found in a costume book.

[14] An anonymous manuscript in the Wren Library at Trinity College in Cambridge (ms. O.17.2) referred to as the Freshfield Album has been attributed to de Vos.

Some of the drawings are accompanied by notes based on the publication De topographia Constantinopoleos of French topographer Pierre Gilles, first printed in 1561.