David, Gerard

David or Davit, Gerard (both: gā`rärt dä`vēt), c.1460–1523, Flemish painter, b. Oudewater, Holland. By 1484 he had established himself in Bruges, where he remained until his death. Dependent on the art of earlier Flemish painters, such as Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin, his work displays a uniform tenderness and grace. Among his notable paintings are the Madonna Enthroned (Louvre); the Virgin among the Virgins (1509, Rouen); the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (National Gall., London); the Annunciation (Metropolitan Mus.); and the Deposition (Frick Coll., New York City).

Bibliography

See E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting (1953).

---

David, Gerard

“Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor,” panel painting by Gerard David, c. …

(credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the National Gallery, London; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.)

(born c. 1460, Oudewater, Neth.—died Aug. 13, 1523, Bruges) Netherlandish painter. He worked mainly in Bruges, where he entered the painters' guild in 1484 and became dean in 1501. He became the city's leading painter after the death of Hans Memling. Most of his works are altarpieces and other panels featuring traditional religious themes, but his best-known paintings, The Judgment of Cambyses and The Flaying of Sisamnes (1498), deal with the theme of justice; they originally hung in the town hall of Bruges. His works are among the earliest Flemish paintings to feature the Italian Renaissance iconography of putti (male child angels) and garlands.