The article explores the development of the phenomenon of the painter-architect during the first half of the sixteenth century in the Low Countries. This phenomenom is often explained by radical changes towards the position of the architect due to the influence of humanist thinking of Vitruvius, Alberti and Serlio. In this article other trajectories are explored in which the formation of the painter-architect is a much more complex internal process within the guild system. The main goal is to examine the process from architectural designers towards visual artists by focussing on the ways in which architectual knowledge disseminated through family ties and guild structure.