[Prev] [Next] [Up] [Top] [Search] [Index] [Home]
Gerard David
(d.1523)
David, Gerard
(d. 1523). Netherlandish painter.
He was born at Oudewater, now in southern Holland, but he worked mainly in
Bruges, where he entered the painters guild in 1484 and became the city's
leading artist after the death of
Memling
in 1494. At this time the economic importance of Bruges was declining, but it
still maintained its prestige as a center of art and David played an
important role in the flourishing export trade in paintings that it
developed in the first quarter of the 16th century.
His work extremely accomplished, but conservative and usually rather
bland was very popular and his stately compositions were copied again
and again. Among his followers were
Ysenbrandt and
Benson,
who carried on his tradition until the middle of the 16th century.
Most of his work was of traditional religious themes, but his best-known
paintings are probably the pair representing
The Judgement of Cabyses
(Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 1498), a gory subject to which his reflective
style was not ideally suited.
[Prev] [Next] [Up] [Top] [Search] [Index] [Home]
|
|
|