van der Goes, Hugo

For more information on Hugo van der Goes, visit Britannica.com.

(b Ghent, c. 1440; d Rode Klooster, nr Brussels, 1482). South Netherlandish painter.

In 1467 he enrolled as master in the Ghent painters' guild, sponsored by Joos van Wassenhove, master painter in Ghent in 1464 after registering in Antwerp in 1460. In 1469 the two together acted as guarantors for the illuminator Sanders Bening when he became a master, and it was from Hugo that Joos borrowed money when he went to Rome. Sanders Bening was married to Kathelijn van der Goes, perhaps Hugo's sister. Hugo's status within the guild is further attested by the fact that he was guarantor for two other painters in 1471 and 1475, that he was one of the dean's jurors in 1468-9 and that he himself served as dean from towards the end of 1473-4 to at least 18 August 1475. He was employed regularly by the town of Ghent between 1468 and 1474 for the decorative ephemera essential to the pageants of public life.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Hugo van der Goes (active 1467-1482) was the most powerful Flemish painter of the second half of the 15th century. His "Portinari Altarpiece" is one of the most intensely beautiful masterworks of all time.

Hugo van der Goes was greatly indebted to the artistic heritage of his predecessors Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden; yet so acute was his visual perception, so talented his draftsmanship, and so original his understanding of the problems of artistic form that his compositions anticipated many principles that came to fruition in the baroque period. Furthermore, the religious symbolism that resides, disguised, in the countless natural forms and objects in the Portinari Altarpiece reveals his astonishingly erudite knowledge of scholastic philosophy and mystical texts.

Van der Goes's origin and early training are unknown. He became a master in the Ghent guild of painters in 1467, the painter Justus of Ghent being one of his guarantors. Between that year and 1475 Van der Goes assisted in the decoration of Ghent and Bruges for such events as the wedding of Charles the Bold to Margaret of York. The artist was made dean of the guild in 1474. Four years later he quit Ghent, then in the throes of political upheaval, for the solace of the Red Cloister monastery near Brussels. Continuing to paint as a privileged brother, he received distinguished visitors, such as Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Returning in 1481 from a trip to Cologne, Van der Goes suffered a fit of melancholia. A fellow brother, Gaspar Ofhuys, documented the illness and recorded that the artist died in the monastery the following year.

His Works

Van der Goes never signed or dated a painting, so attributions have had to be made on the basis of the one work, the Portinari Altarpiece, that is authenticated (by Giorgio Vasari). Its date of about 1474-1476 has been presumed on the basis of the number and ages of the children of the donors on the wings of the triptych.

Earlier in style, and possibly Van der Goes's first known work, is the little diptych with the Fall of Man and the Lamentation. The self-consciously nude figures of Adam and Eve recall the ones on the Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers; the rhythmic composition of the distraught figures in the Lamentation derives from the form world of Rogier van der Weyden. Different from both is the expression of Van der Goes's personal feeling of the tragedy of the drama of the Fall and Redemption.

The huge panel Adoration of the Magi, the surviving central portion of the Monforte Altarpiece, probably dates about 1472. The concept is one of serene grandeur, with a monumental feeling that is unique in the dozen works attributable to Van der Goes. The composition is resplendent in descriptive details, superb in lighting, and rich in color.

The Portinari Altarpiece is a giant triptych, 18 feet across when opened. Its theme is the adoration of the newborn Child by Mary, Joseph, 3 memorably individualized shepherds, and 15 attending angels. It was commissioned by Tomasso Portinari, the representative of the Medici in Bruges. Tomasso kneels in the left wing with his sons Antonio and Pigello; in the right wing are his wife, Maria, and their daughter Margherita. Looming large behind them are their name saints: Anthony and Thomas, Margaret and Mary Magdalen. Deep within a magnificent winter landscape the procession of the Magi approaches. The Annunciation, in monochrome, is seen when the wings are closed. The central scene is a spectacular drama of opposites reconciled: open and closed space, large and small figures, natural and supernatural light, divine and human forms. Masterfully painted textures are subordinate to an overall feeling of heightened realism and grandeur in an intense moment of revealed Christian truth.

Van der Goes's large Death of the Virgin was painted in the monastery about 1481. Christ materializes in a burst of rainbow light to receive the soul of his dying mother, while the assembled Apostles press against her bed, each intensely experiencing as an individual his personal loss. There has rarely been expressed in Christian art so moving a statement of the temporal and the eternal life.

Further Reading

A study of Van der Goes is in Max J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. 4: Hugo van der Goes (1969). For an interesting essay on the nature of Van der Goes's illness see Rudolf and Margot Wittkower, Born under Saturn (1963).

Portinari Altarpiece

Hugo van der Goes (Ghent, ?c. 1440 – Oudergem, near Brussels, 1482 or 1483) was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Gerard David, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish painters.

Hugo became a member of the painters' guild of Ghent as a master in 1467. In 1468 he was involved in the decoration of the town of Bruges in celebration of the marriage between Charles the Bold and Margaret of York and he provided heraldic decorations for Charles's joyeuse entrée to Ghent in 1469 and again in 1472. He was elected dean of the Ghent guild in 1473 or 1474.

In 1475, or some years later, Hugo entered Rooklooster, a monastery near Brussels belonging to the Windesheim Congregation, and professed there as a frater conversus. He continued to paint, and remained at Rooklooster until his death in 1482 or 1483. In 1480 he was called to the town of Leuven to evaluate the Justice Scenes left unfinished by the painter Dieric Bouts on his death in 1475. Shortly after this, Hugo, returning with other members of his monastery from a trip to Cologne, fell into a state of suicidal gloom, declaring himself to be damned. After returning to Rooklooster, Hugo recovered from his illness, and died there. His time at Rooklooster is recorded in the chronicle of his fellow monk, Gaspar Ofhuys. A report by a German physician, Hieronymus Münzer, from 1495, according to which a painter from Ghent was driven to melancholy by the attempt to equal the Ghent Altarpiece, may refer to Hugo.

Right wing of Deposition (c. 1480), tempera on canvas, 53.5 x 38.5 cm, Gemäldegalerie Berlin

His most famous surviving work is the Portinari Triptych (Uffizi, Florence), an altarpiece commissioned for the church of San Egidio in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence by Tommaso Portinari, the manager of the Bruges branch of the Medici Bank. The triptych arrived in Florence in 1483, apparently some years after its completion by van der Goes. The largest Netherlandish work that could be seen in Florence, it was greatly praised. Giorgio Vasari in his Vite of 1550 referred to it as by "Ugo d'Anversa" ("Hugo of Antwerp"). This is the sole documentation for its authorship by Hugo; other works are attributed to him based on stylistic comparison with the altarpiece.^[1]

Hugo appears to have left a large number of drawings, and either from these or the paintings themselves followers made large numbers of copies of compositions that have not survived from his own hand.^[2] A drawing of Jacob and Rachel preserved at Christ Church, Oxford is thought to be a rare surviving autograph drawing.

Major works

• Fall of Man and Lamentation diptych. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
• Deposition diptych (on canvas). Private collector (left wing); Berlin, Gemäldegalerie (right wing)
• Adoration of the Kings ("Monforte Altarpiece"). Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
• Portinari Triptych. Florence, Uffizi
• Trinity Panels. Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland
• Adoration of the Shepherds. Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
• Death of the Virgin. Bruges, Groeningemuseum

References

1. ^ National Gallery Catalogues (new series): The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings, Lorne Campbell, p.240, 1998, ISBN 185709171
2. ^ Campbell, op. & page cit

External links

• Artcyclopedia: Hugo van der Goes
• Olga's gallery: Hugo van der Goes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hugo van der Goes

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)