Hans Memling and the Merchants

A social history of the fifteenth-century German painter's influence.

Emigrating from southern Germany in the late fifteenth-century, painter Hans Memling sought success in Bruges, which was a vibrant commercial hub at the time. Rather than among the nobility or ecclesiastical institutions, instead he found his audience in the new urban middle class of merchant bankers, financiers, politicians, affluent clerics and artisans. He also enjoyed a reputation among diverse communities of traders and diplomats from across Europe, including Castile and England, as well as Italian cities like Genoa, Bologna and Florence, and the Hanseatic League. This book explores the social and material aspects of Memling's career and workshop, providing a vibrant entry into Bruges as an early modern commercial capital, highlighting international trade, factional politics, artisanal guilds, devotional traditions, and the aspirations and identities of his merchant-class clientele.