Gerard David was a Netherlandish painter born in Oudewater in 1460. He trained in Haarlem and then settles in Brugge. his influences included Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling, who he succeeded as official painter of Brugge.

His work is characterized by richly colored, yet austere, altarpieces and panels which show his interest in representing volume and organizing figures in space such as in "Judgement of Cambyses" and "Virgin and Child With Angels and Saints."