Hans Memling

Born around 1430 in the Middle Rhine, probably raised in Mainz, Memling trained in the Brussels workshop of Rogier van der Weyden before settling in Bruges in 1465 as a new citizen. There he built a workshop that served the city's ruling class: his altarpieces and devotional panels wove patron portraits - clergymen, aristocrats, merchants - directly into sacred scenes, a technique rooted in the Early Netherlandish tradition he'd absorbed as an apprentice. By 1480 a tax roll named him among Bruges' richest residents. He married Anna de Valkenaere and fathered three children; he died in August 1494. Two centuries of obscurity followed, then the 19th century pulled him back into view.