Bridging North and South: Hugo van der Goes and Hans Memling

The Northern Renaissance… The Italian Renaissance… aren’t they completely different movements in the story of art? In many ways, yes. But there comes a fascinating point in the second half of the 16th century when the gap is bridged. Tomasso Portinari is a leading figure in this convergence. In this talk we’ll look at his commission of paintings by Hugo van der Goes and Hans Memling to see the impact the north made on the south. We will include the Portinari Altarpiece (a painting that was huge influential on Florentine artists of the 1480s), plus the Memling portraits of Tomasso and his wife – perhaps the greatest example of Netherlandish portraiture from the second half of the century.