Petrus Christus

Petrus Christus was a Dutch painter active in the fifteenth century. He was greatly influenced by earlier Netherlandish painters such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. Though very much the working in the traditions of Netherlandish painting established by such earlier artists, Christus was also a notable innovator, being one of the first painters to bring geometric perspective to his region. Interestingly, he purchased citizenship in Bruges so that he could join the painters’ guild in the city which was then the centre of Netherlandish painting. 

Christus’s clientele was often from the Mediterranean because of his location in a trade city, and much of his work has an Italian or Spanish provenance, and in turn was influential on Spanish and Italian artists. It is uncertain if Christus himself ever visited Italy, but it is possible he was in Milan in the 1450s, which may have been where he encountered the groundbreaking principle of linear perspective. 

Christus was committed to satisfying his patrons; he would alter his own style to suit the needs of his clients, and he was attentive to minute details. In addition, he innovated the portrait by placing his subjects in corners with two distinct sources of light and often set his subjects against highly detailed backgrounds. The Metropolitan Museum of New York today holds a major collection of his work.