Forgotten during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Memling is today considered one of the greatest fifteenth-century Northern European painters, thanks to the perfect balance between realism and concern for idealisation in his portraits.
His compositions,frequently diptychs, triptychs or altarpieces, display a virtuosity comparable to that of Van Eyck.His taste for detail and precise drawing as well as his technical mastery and sens of composition are brought together perfect such magnificent works as The Last Judgement, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine and The Seven Joys of the Virgin.