Renaissance Lives | Memling and the Merchants

Mitzi Kirkland-Ives in conversation with Rembrandt Duits

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. 'Memling and the Merchants' 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.

Renaissance Lives is a series of biographies published by Reaktion Books as well as a series of conversations discussing the ways in which individuals transmitted or changed the lives of traditions, ideas and images.

https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/whats/lectures-talks/renaissance-lives

This talk took place on 29 May 2025.