Brief Biography-Hugo van der Goes was born in Ghent. The Guild of Saint Luke admitted him in May 1467, and he was elected Dean in 1473. His most notable work is the Portinari Altarpiece, commissioned by Thomas Portinari, a representative of the Medici at Bruges, for the Hospital of Our Lady at Florence. His work with oil had a remarkable effect on Florentine artists, particularly on Ghirlandaio. In 1476 he entered the monastery of the Augustinian Canons at Rooden Clooster, where he received visits from numerous notables and Archduke Maximillian regarding commissions. The town’s magistrates dispatched him to Louvain to assess the estate of Dieric Bouts in 1478. The task put him under pressure regarding his other commissions, which he estimated would take nine years to complete, and he had a fit of melancholy. In 1482, he travelled to Cologne with his brother and other canons when he suffered a spell of severe madness and tried to kill himself. Der Goes died in the same year. The Portinari Altarpiece is in the Uffizi Gallery today.