The Preaching of Saint Gaugericus

The Master of the View of Saint Gudula, named after a distinctive cityscape in one of his paintings, was an anonymous Brussels painter active around 1470-1490. This panel of Saint Gaugericus preaching dates to around 1480 and reflects the artistic culture of Brussels, which rivaled Bruges and Ghent as a center of Netherlandish painting. Saint Gaugericus was the patron of Brussels, making this a work of civic as well as religious significance. This work belongs to the Early Renaissance, the transformative period in European art when painters first applied mathematical perspective, naturalistic figure modeling, and archaeological interest in antiquity to the inherited traditions of medieval devotional painting.

Oil on panel with careful attention to the urban architectural setting characteristic of this master. The preaching scene combines Netherlandish figural conventions with detailed observation of contemporary urban life.