JUSTUS OF GHENT (JoDom.'s, or Joos OF GHENT) (?143o–?148o), a Flemish painter whom Vasari and Guicciardini called Guisto da Guanto, and who has been identified with Joos van Wassenhove, a member of the painters' guild at Antwerp in 146o and at Ghent in 1464. His name is not mentioned in the records of the guilds after 1468 and it is supposed that he then emigrated to Italy. To his early period in Flanders two pictures have been ascribed : the altarpiece at St. Bavo in Ghent represent ing the "Crucifixion" and the "Adoration of the Magi" in the Blumenthal collection at New York. In 1474 we see him in Italy, where he painted the "Communion of the Apostles," which is described by Vasari and which is now in the Palazzo Ducale at Urbino. This is the only absolutely authenticated picture by the master. It was painted for the brotherhood of Corpus Christi at the bidding of Federico of Montefeltro, who was introduced into the picture as a companion of Caterino Zeno, a Persian envoy at that time on a mission to the court of Urbino. Vespasiano de Bisticci, the librarian of Federico of Montefeltro, states that this duke sent to the Netherlands for a capable artist to paint a series of "ancient worthies" for a library recently erected in the palace of Urbino, because he knew no one in Italy who understood how to paint in oil colours. It has been conjectured that the author
of these "worthies," which are still in existence at the Louvre and in the Barberini palace at Rome, was Justus. His Flemish style is here tempered by the study of the masterpieces of Santi and Melozzo. To Justus is also ascribed the portrait of the duke and his son now in the Barberini palace in Rome. The seven "Liberal Arts," which decorated the ducal palace at Urbino, and whereof two are now in the National Gallery and another two at Berlin, are ascribed to Justus by some critics and by others to Melozzo da Forli. They seem to recall Melozzo in their design, but are Flemish in their colour and execution. According to recent art criticism Justus was an artist who brought his northern traditions to Italy and there combined them with those of the Italian school. His development was gradual and his later works are difficult to distinguish from those of Italian masters.