Pedro Berruguete

Pedro Berruguete’s paintings glow with gold. He covered halos, robes and backgrounds in gold leaf and patterned brocade, then set solid, grave figures inside painted architectural frames. The mix of Flemish detail and Italian Renaissance space is often called Hispano-Flemish, and he worked in tempera rather than oil.

He was born around 1450 in Paredes de Nava in Castile and probably spent years in Italy at the court of Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino before returning to Spain around 1482. Back home he worked in Toledo, Ávila and other Castilian towns, painting almost only religious altarpieces. His best-known panel, Saint Dominic Presiding over an Auto-da-fé, hangs in the Prado, and his King David is still in the church of Santa Eulalia in his home town.

Look for the wrinkled, heavy hands of his old men and the heavy eyelids and round cheeks of his women.