Hugo van der Goes

Who was Hugo van der Goes?

Hugo van der Goes was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Dieric Bouts, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish painters.

Born in or near Ghent, van der Goes was enlisted as a member of the painters' guild of Ghent as a master in 1467. The following year he was involved in the decoration of the town of Bruges in celebration of the marriage between Charles the Bold and Margaret of York. He provided heraldic decorations for Charles's joyeuse entrée to Ghent in 1469 and later in 1472. He was dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in Ghent from 1474 till 1476.

Probably in 1478, Hugo entered Rood Klooster, a monastery in Oudergem near Brussels belonging to the Windesheim Congregation, and professed there as a frater conversus. He continued to paint, and remained at Rood Klooster until his death in 1482. 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 Rood Klooster, Hugo recovered from his illness, and died there. His time at Rood Klooster 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.