Dieric Bouts

Dieric Bouts (c. 1415–1475) was an Early Netherlandish painter, born in Haarlem and active for most of his career in Leuven, where he became the city painter. His pictures are marked by stillness: tall, slender figures with composed faces, quiet emotion, and carefully constructed space. He was among the first northern painters to use a single vanishing point, and his landscapes, deep and luminous, were admired and copied. His two great works remain in Saint Peter's Church in Leuven: the Holy Sacrament Altarpiece, whose theological programme was set out in a surviving contract by professors of the university, and the Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus.