(b Ypres, c. 1355; d Ypres, c. 1411). South Netherlandish painter. Broederlam’s family, long-established in Ypres, provided three aldermen for the city and sided with the French Counts of Flanders against the Flemish populace. After a training that may have included contact with Jan Boudolf in Bruges before 1368 or Paris after 1370 and an extended visit to Italy, the artist became, by 1381, an official painter of the reigning count, Louis de Mâle (reg. 1346–84), painting leather chairs, pennons and banners. On 13 May 1384, directly after Louis’s death, he was appointed a valet de chambre to the count’s heir, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and in 1385 was sent to live in the castle at Hesdin, Artois, in order to supervise the rebuilding of its galleries of entertainment and to paint the walls according to a plan devised by Philip himself.

• Broederlam, Melchior
  • Belgium, §III, 1(i): Wall and panel painting, before 1400
  • Gothic, §IV, 3: Painting: Working practices
  • Gothic, §IV, 5(xi): Painting: International Gothic style, c 1380–c 1440
  • paintings
    • Gothic, §IV, 2(ii): Panel painting
    • altarpieces
      • Altarpiece, §2(ii)(a): Forms and development: Before c 1400
      • Dijon, §IV, 1(iii): Charterhouse: Painting
      • Gothic, §III, 2(i): Wood sculpture: Introduction
      • Gothic, §IV, 5(x): Painting: France, c 1350–c 1410
      • Jacques de Baerze
    • triptychs
      • Frame, §V, 1: The Netherlands and Belgium: Gothic
  • patrons and collectors
    • Burgundy: (1) Philip the Bold, §1: Introduction
    • Burgundy: (1) Philip the Bold, §3: Tapestries, manuscripts and paintings
    • Burgundy: (1) Philip the Bold, §2: Architecture and related work
    • Carthusian Order, §3: Iconography and patronage
    • France, §III, 1(iii): Painting and graphic arts: Gothic
    • Louis II, Count of Flanders