Diego de la Cruz (painter)

He was long forgotten, until being rediscovered in 1966, thanks to a study by José Gudiol Ricart, who proposed that he was born in Flanders around 1460 and arrived in Spain before the first group of Flemish painters arrived, led by Juan de Flandes.

Other researchers, such as José Camón Aznar [es] presumed that he was born in Spain; probably Castile.

[2] The influence upon his work by painters of the Burgundian Netherlands, such as Rogier van der Weyden, especially in his treatment of light, may be explained by their presence in Spain, rather than by his origins.

Even Guidol suggests that he began as a sculptor and may have started his artistic career in the workshop of Gil de Siloé, who is believed to have been born in Antwerp.

Based on an analysis of these works, it has been possible to make other attributions: notably, Cristo de Piedad entre dos ángeles at the Colegiata de Covarrubias [es], and the Cristo de Piedad entre los profetas David y Jeremías, the central tableau of the predella of an altarpiece and companion to two other tableaux (of the prophets Isaiah and Daniel) in the collection of the University of Liège, which have been attributed to the German painter, Hans Leonhard Schäufelein.