12 Facts About Gerard David

Gerard David was very successful in his lifetime and probably ran two workshops, in Antwerp and Bruges.

Gerard David was born in Oudewater, now located in the province of Utrecht.

Gerard David is believed to have spent time in Italy from 1470 to 1480, where he was influenced by the Italian Renaissance.

Gerard David formed his early style under Albert van Oudewater in Haarlem, and moved to Bruges in 1483, where he joined the Guild of Saint Luke in 1484.

Gerard David became dean of the guild in 1501, and in 1496 married Cornelia Cnoop, daughter of the dean of the goldsmiths' guild.

Gerard David refused to return the materials because Benson owed him a large debt.

Benson sought legal recourse in court and after he won, Gerard David was condemned to a prison term.

Gerard David is innovative in his recasting of traditional themes and in his approach to landscape, which was then only an emerging genre in northern European painting.

Gerard David visited Antwerp in 1515 and was impressed with the work of Quentin Matsys, who had introduced a greater vitality and intimacy in the conception of sacred themes.

The works for which Gerard David is best known are the altarpieces painted before his visit to Antwerp: the Marriage of St Catherine at the National Gallery, London; the triptych of the Madonna Enthroned and Saints of the Brignole-Sale collection in Genoa; the Annunciation of the Sigmaringen collection; and above all, the Madonna with Angels and Saints, which he donated to the Carmelite Nuns of Sion at Bruges, and which is in the Rouen museum.

Gerard David worked closely with the leading manuscript illuminators of the day, and seems to have been brought in to paint specific important miniatures himself, among them a Virgin among the Virgins in the Morgan Library, a Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon in the Rothschild Prayerbook, and a portrait of the Emperor Maximilian in Vienna.

Less known but of high quality are the works of Gerard David found in Spanish public collections.