Netherlandish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1435-1494 Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1455?C1460). He then went to Bruges around 1465. There is an apocryphical story that he was a wounded at the Battle of Nancy, sheltered and cured by the Hospitallers at Bruges, and that to show his gratitude he refused payment for a picture he had painted for them. Memling did indeed paint for the Hospitallers, but he painted several pictures for them, in 1479 and 1480, and it is likely that he was known to his patrons of St John, prior to the Battle of Nancy. Memling is connected with military operations only in a distant sense. His name appears on a list of subscribers to the loan which was raised by Maximilian I of Austria, to defend against hostilities towards France in 1480. In 1477, when he was incorrectly claimed to have been killed, he was under contract to create an altarpiece for the gild-chapel of the booksellers of Bruges. This altarpiece, under the name of the Seven Griefs of Mary, is now in the Gallery of Turin. It is one of the fine creations of his more mature period. It is not inferior in any way to those of 1479 in the hospital of St. John, which for their part are hardly less interesting as illustrative of the master's power than The Last Judgment which can be found since the 1470s in the St. Mary's Church, Gda??sk. Critical opinion has been unanimous in assigning this altarpiece to Memling. This affirms that Memling was a resident and a skilled artist at Bruges in 1473; for the Last Judgment was undoubtedly painted and sold to a merchant at Bruges, who shipped it there on board of a vessel bound to the Mediterranean, which was captured by Danzig privateer Paul Beneke in that very year. This purchase of his pictures by an agent of the Medici demonstrates that he had a considerable reputation.  Related Paintings of Hans Memling :. | Portrait of a Young Man | adam | Portrait of elderly women | Virgin and Child Enthroned with Two Angels | The Presentation in the Temple |
Related Artists:
Bernaert Van Orley
Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1488-1541, Painter and tapestry designer, son of Valentin van Orley. He was one of the greatest proponents of ROMANISM, a northern style based on the ideals of the Italian Renaissance. It must have been in Brussels, however, that he saw the Italian works of art that influenced him so profoundly, for it seems unlikely that he ever travelled to Italy. Brussels was then world-renowned as the centre for tapestry manufacture but was suffering from the ecliptic rise of Antwerp as the pre-eminent painting centre. The artist made the best of both situations, establishing himself as a leading designer for the Brussels tapestry industry and as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke by 1517.
J.L.Clark
British 19th c
bores