Petrus Christus

(c. 1410/1420 – 1475/1476) An Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444, where, along with Hans Memling, he became the leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck. He was influenced by van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden and is noted for his innovations with linear perspective and a meticulous technique which seems derived from miniatures and manuscript illumination. The best known include the Portrait of a Carthusian (1446) and Portrait of a Young Girl (c. 1470); both are highly innovative in the presentation of the figure against detailed, rather than flat, backgrounds.