Hans Memling was born in Germany and obtained citizenship in Bruges, where he established his practice and style. Memling would be one of the city’s leading artists until his death, creating paintings largely for the merchant class and foreign communities (many of his portraits were made for Italian patrons). Little is known of Memling’s training, though his compositions and angular figure types clothed in heavy drapery bear the influences of Flemish masters Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. In his 1550 volume Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Giorgio Vasari called him a disciple of van der Weyden, suggesting that Memling studied with the master.