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Hugo van der Goes (b. around 1440, Ghent; d. 1482, Brussels/Roodendale Monastery) was the most important Dutch artist of the second half of the 15th century. He was the main master of the Old Netherlandish painting. In 1467 he became a master in the Painter's Guild Lucas in Ghent. Albrecht Dürer called him a "great master".
In 1475 he became a monk in the Augustinian Roodendale Monastery where he painted most of his surviving works. In the monastery he was suddenly stricken with a mental illness and tried to take his own life.
Later, van der Goes was therefore considered the prototype of the "mad genius" with whom Vincent van Gogh also identified.