BERMEJO, BARTOLOM

born , Crdoba, fl. 147495 died , Barcelona also called Bartolom De Crdenas painter, a cultivator of the Flemish style, who was considered the finest painter in Spain before El Greco. His style became the model for many painters of his era. Little is known of Bermejo's early activity. Between 1474 and 1477 he worked in Aragon, where he left disciples, and between 1486 and 1495 in Catalonia, where he collaborated with Jaime Huguet, the principal master of that school. His earliest dated work, the panel of Santo Domingo de Silos Madrid (Prado), painted in 1474, has typical Gothic elements. Under the influence of the Flemish masters these elements gradually disappeared as he became more skilled in the use of foreshortening, in detailed depiction of accessories, and in the resolution of difficult problems in perspective. The work that demonstrates most clearly his mastery of Renaissance techniques is the Piet of 1490 in the Cathedral of Barcelona, which lacks gold in the background (present in earlier works); instead, a landscape under a stormy sky is painted very much in the manner of the Flemish master Rogier van der Weyden, rich in detail, colour, and life. The figure of the donor (Canon Luis Despl) in this picture is considered one of the finest portraits painted in Europe in this period.