Hugo van der Goes (around 1440-1482) is a Flemish painter from the Burgundian Netherlands. He is one of the most essential and innovative Flemish painters of the late 15th century. The small number of his paintings that are preserved testify to a new monumentality, a specific color palette, and a unique way of representing the characters and the expressions on their faces. His masterpiece, the Triptych Portinari, has been on display in Florence since 1483 and has played a significant role in the development of realism and the use of color in the art of the Italian Renaissance.The majority of Hugo van der Goes' original artwork has not been preserved. The many later copies of the lost originals testify to Hugo van der Goes' considerable influence on Flemish art. German artists also know Hugo van der Goes through engravings made by Martin Schongauer. After van der Goes' death in 1482, Alexander Bening, a book illustrator from Ghent, married to a niece of the painter, must have inherited Van der Goes' drawings and designs. This explains the wide distribution of Van der Goes' compositions in the illustrated books of the Ghent-Bruges school.