Hans Memling

Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11

August 1494) was a German painter who moved to
Flanders and worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish
painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region, and
probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He had moved to
the Netherlands by 1465 and spent time in the Brussels
workshop of Rogier van der Weyden. He was subsequently
made a citizen of Bruges, where he became one of the
leading artists, painting both portraits and diptychs for
personal devotion and several large religious works,
continuing the style he learned in his youth. He became
very successful, and in 1480 was listed among the
wealthiest citizens in a city tax list.

He married Anna de Valkenaere sometime between 1470

and 1480, and they had three children. Memling's art was Virgin with Child betweenSt. James and St. Dominic
(1488–1490). This painting features a so-called Memling
"
rediscovered, and became very popular, in the 19th century.
carpet".[1]

Contents
Life and works
Gallery
Memling carpets
References and sources
Further reading
External links

Life and works

Born in Seligenstadt,[2] near Frankfurt in the Middle Main region, Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later
worked in the Low Countries under Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1455–1460) in Brussels, Duchy of Brabant. He then worked at
Bruges, County of Flanders by 1465.[2]

He may have been wounded at the Battle of Nancy (1477), sheltered and cured by the Hospitallers at Bruges and to show his
gratitude he refused payment for a picture he had painted for them. Memling did paint for the Hospitallers in 1479 and 1480, and it is
likely that he was known to the patrons of St John prior to the Battle of Nancy. In 1477, when he was believed dead, he was under
contract to create an altarpiece for the gild-chapel of the booksellers of Bruges. This altarpiece, Scenes of the Passion of Christ, now
in the Galleria Sabauda of Turin, is not inferior in any way to those of 1479 in the Hospital of St. John, which for their part are hardly
less interesting as illustrative of the master's power than The Last Judgment, which since the 1470s, is in the National Museum,
Gdańsk. Critical opinion has been generally unanimous in assigning this altarpiece to Memling. This is evidence that Memling was a
resident of Bruges in 1473; for the Last Judgment was likely painted and sold to a merchant at Bruges, who shipped it there on board
a vessel bound to the Mediterranean which was captured by Danzig privateer Paul Beneke in that very year. The purchase of his
pictures by an agent of theMedici demonstrates that he had a considerable reputation.
 The oldest allusions to pictures connected to
Memling point to his relations with the
Burgundian court, which was held in Brussels.
The inventories of Margaret of Austria, drawn up
in 1524, allude to a triptych of the God of Pity by
Rogier van der Weyden, of which the wings
containing angels were painted by "Master Hans".
He may have been apprenticed to van der Weyden
in Bruges, where he afterwards dwelt.

The clearest evidence of the connection of the two

masters is that afforded by pictures, particularly
an altarpiece, which has alternately been assigned
to each of them, and which may be due to their
Last Judgement, triptych, oil on wood, 1466–1473.National joint labours. In this altarpiece, which is a triptych
Museum, Gdańsk
ordered for a patron of the house of Sforza, we

find the style of van der Weyden in the central

panel of the Crucifixion, and that of Memling in
the episodes on the wings. Yet the whole piece
was assigned to the former in the Zambeccari
collection at Bologna, whilst it was attributed to
the latter at the Middleton sale in London in 1872.

Memling's painting of the Baptist in the gallery of

Munich (c. 1470) is the oldest form in which
Memling's style is displayed. The subsequent Last Advent and Triumph of Christ (or Seven Joys of Mary)
Judgment in Gdańsk shows that Memling
preserved the tradition of sacred art used earlier
by Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune Altarpiece.

Memling's portraits, in particular, were popular in Italy.[3] According to Paula Nuttall, Memling's distinctive contribution to
portraiture was his use of landscape backgrounds, characterized by "a balanced counterpoint between top and bottom, foreground and
background: the head offset by the neutral expanse of sky, and the neutral area of the shoulders enlivened by the landscape detail
beyond".[4] Memling's portrait style influenced the work of numerous late-15th-century Italian painters,[5] and is evident in works
such as Raphael's Portraits of Agnolo and Maddalena Doni.[6] He was popular with Italian customers as shown in the preference
given to them by such purchasers as Cardinal Grimani and Cardinal Bembo at Venice, and the heads of the house of Medici at
Florence.

Memling's reputation was not confined to Italy or Flanders. The Madonna and Saints (which passed from the Duchatel collection to
the Louvre), the Virgin and Child (painted for Sir John Donne and now at the National Gallery, London), and the four attributed
portraits in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence (including the Portrait of Folco Portinari), show that his work was widely appreciated in
the 16th century.

The Scenes from the Passion of Christ in the Galleria Sabauda of Turin and the Advent and Triumph of Christ in the Pinakothek of
Munich are illustrations of the habit in Flanders art of representing a cycle of subjects on the different planes of a single picture,
where a wide expanse of ground is covered with incidents from the Passion in the form common to the action of sacred plays.

Memling became sufficiently prosperous that his name appears on a list of the 875 richest citizens of Bruges who were obligatory
subscribers to the loan raised by Maximilian I of Austria, to finance hostilities towards France in 1480.[7] Memling's name does not
appear on subsequent subscription lists of this type, suggesting that his financial circumstances declined somewhat as a result of the
economic crisis in Bruges during the 1480s.[8]
 The masterpiece of Memling's later years, the
Shrine of St Ursula in the museum of the hospital
of Bruges, is fairly supposed to have been ordered
and finished in 1480. The delicacy of finish in its
miniature figures, the variety of its landscapes and
costume, the marvellous patience with which its
details are given, are all matters of enjoyment to
the spectator. There is later work of the master in
the St Christopher and Saints of 1484 in the
academy, or the Diptych of Maarten van
Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation (front)(c.1485) Nieuwenhove in the hospital of Bruges, or a large
Oil on oak panel, 22 x 15 cm (each wing)Musée des Beaux-Arts de Crucifixion, with scenes from the Passion, of
Strasbourg
1491 from the Lübeck Cathedral (Dom) of
Lübeck, now in Lübeck's St. Annen Museum.
Near the close of Memling's career he was increasingly supported by his workshop. The registers of the painters' guild at Bruges give
the names of two apprentices who served their time with Memling and paid dues on admission to the guild in 1480 and 1486. These
subordinates remained obscure.

He died in Bruges. The trustees of his will appeared before the court of wards at Bruges on 10 December 1495, and we gather from
records of that date and place that Memling left behind several children and considerable property
.

Gallery
The Man of Sorrows in the arms of the Christ Giving His Blessing, 1478,
Virgin, 1475, National Gallery of Norton Simon Museum
Victoria

Mater Dolorosa, c. 1480, Uffizi Gallery Christ Surrounded by Musician Angels,

c. 1480 Royal Museum of Fine Arts
Antwerp
 Annunciation, 1480–89, Metropolitan Allegory with a Virgin, 1479–80
Museum of Art

Portrait of Maria Portinari, c. 1475 Portrait of Barbara van Vlaendenbergh,

c. 1480

Memling carpets
Memling carpets are a type of early Oriental carpet painted in several Memlings, and named after him. They are characterized by
guls
with "hooked" lines radiating from a central body
, and probably came fromAnatolia or Armenia.

References and sources

References

1. King, Donald and Sylvester, David eds. The Eastern Carpet in the Western World, From the 15th to the 17th century,
p. 57, Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1983, ISBN 0-7287-0362-9
2. Murray, P. and Murray, L. (1963) The Art of the Renaissance. London: Thames & Hudson, p. 156. ISBN 978-0-500-
20008-7
3. Borchert 2005, p. 70
4. Borchert 2005, p. 74
5. Borchert 2005, p. 78
6. Borchert 2005, p. 83
7. Borchert 2005, p. 15
8. Borchert 2005, pp. 15–16
Sources

Borchert, Till-Holger (ed.) (2005). Memling's Portraits. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-09326-1.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Memlinc,
Hans". Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 104–105.

Further reading
de Vos, Dirk (1994). Hans Memling: The Complete Works. Harry N Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-3649-6.

External links
Media related to Hans Memling at Wikimedia Commons
Hans Memling on BALaT - Belgian Art Links and o Tols (KIK-IRPA, Brussel)
Petrus Christus: Renaissance master of Bruges
Fifteenth- to eighteenth-century European paintings: France, Central Europe, the Netherlands, Spain, and Great
Britain

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