Hugo van der Goes: Historiography, Italian Patronage, and the Devotio Moderna

FAIN: FA-52464-06

Diane Bette Wolfthal
Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ 85281-3670)

I am applying for an NEH Fellowship in order to complete three chapters of a monograph that I am writing on Hugo van der Goes, one of the greatest Early Netherlandish painters. No comprehensive study of this artist has ever been written in English, yet Hugo not only produced works of incredible beauty that have become canonical within the discipline of art history, but also deeply influenced the development of Netherlandish and Italian art. The three chapters that I will complete explore the historiography of Hugo van der Goes, and his relationship to Italy and to the Devotio Moderna, the popular movement in which he was a lay brother.