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| | Malaspina Great Books - Hugo van der Goes (c. 1435-1482) |
 | | At a period when the family of the Medici had not yet risen from the rank of a great mercantile firm to that of a reigning dynasty, it employed as an agent at the port of Bruges Tommaso Portinari, a lineal descendant, it was said, of Folco, the father of Dante's Beatrix. |
 | | In the centre of a vast triptych, comprising numerous figures of life size, Hugo represented the Virgin kneeling in adoration before the new-born Christ attended by Shepherds and Angels. |
 | | Van der Goes, however, was not habitually a painter of easel pieces. |
| www.malaspina.org /home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=693 (580 words) |
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