Deposition Diptych

Hugo van der Goes, who created the famous Portinari Altarpiece for the Medici agent in Bruges, which profoundly influenced Florentine painters when it arrived in Florence around 1483, created this work around 1480. This work reflects the artistic culture of Ghent during the Early Renaissance, when painters were forging new approaches to representation through the study of perspective, anatomy, and natural light. Hugo van der Goes was the most psychologically intense and technically adventurous Flemish painter of the later fifteenth century, whose work had a profound impact on Florentine painting when the Portinari Altarpiece arrived in Florence in 1483.

The multi-panel format coordinates composition across joined surfaces, requiring careful planning to ensure visual coherence when opened, while the wing reverses often bear additional imagery for the closed state.