Hugo van der Goes

Hugo van der Goes was born sometime between 1430 and 1440 and became one of the most original painters in the late 15th-century Low Countries. He worked in a monumental style, built altarpieces and portraits with a specific color range and an individualistic approach to faces. His masterpiece, the Portinari Triptych, traveled to Florence in 1483, a year after he died in 1482. There it became a catalyst: Italian painters studied its realism and handling of color, and those lessons fed directly into the Renaissance. He didn't live to see the influence, but the work moved without him.