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...