Hugo Van der Goes, Death of the Virgin, Musea Brugge

With his highly personal and fascinating style, Hugo van der Goes belongs in a class of his own. His art is very different from that of his contemporary Hans Memling, mainly in psychological penetration and emotional expression. Within the oeuvre of van der Goes, the Dormition is the ultimate example. The deceased Mother of God is the silent and still centre of the composition. Around her dead body stand the apostles, whose inner turmoil is expressed with great poignancy. Their strongly individualised facial features and their intense feeling, underlined by the play of their gestures, make for great expressive force. Traditionally, depictions of the death of the Virgin are very much narrative. But van der Goes leaves out all anecdote and excludes references to the outside world in order to concentrate on the apostles’ grief and loss. His use of colours is as striking as it is exceptional, with colour areas placed in sharp contrast to each other. The reds and blues bring a remarkable balance to the colour composition. Only a few paintings by Hugo van der Goes have come down to us. This deeply moving and original Death of the Virgin is the only large panel by this master in Belgium.