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Entries in Dieric Bouts the Elder (1)

Monday
Apr012013

The Dignity and Grandeur of Dieric Bouts the Elder

Dieric Bouts the Elder - Portrait of a Man - c. 1470 - Oil on wood, 31 x 22 cm - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (click photo for larger image)Dieric Bouts the Elder - The Ordeal by Fire - c. 1460 - Oil on wood, 324 x 182 cm - Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels - This painting is one panel of a diptych that was painted by Bouts towards the end of his life. The paintings recount a horrific misadventure that befell Otto III and his treacherous wife. Bouts had found the story in a 12th-century chronicle written by Godefroy, Bishop of Viterbo. (click photo for larger image)Like many painters of his generation, Dieric Bouts the Elder (born c. 1415, now the Netherlands - died May 6, 1475, now Belgium) was heavily influenced by masters Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. Later on in his career, however, a greater severity and dignity in the treatment of figures; appears in his work. The facial expressions of the figures in his paintings show an extraordinary restraint that appears as a deliberately controlled intensity, made with great spiritual effect.