Rogier van der Weyden

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Rogier van der Weyden

(1399/1400 - 1464).
The leading Netherlandish painter of the mid-15th century
In spite of religious celebrity of Rogier van der Weyden (his painting was appreciated in Italy as well as north of the Alps), his reputation later faded, and there is little secure knowledge about his career. There are, in fact, no Rogier van der Weyden paintings that can be given to him indisputably on the basis of signatures or religious documentation, but several are mentioned in early sources, and the style these show is so distinctive that a coherent oeuvre has been built up around them.

His early life is still somewhat problematic, however. In 1427 a certain Rogelet de la Pâture entered the workshop of Robert Campain at Tournai and left as Maistre Rogier in 1432. It is generally accepted that this is Rogier van der Weyden (the French and Flemish forms of the name both meaning `Rogier of the Meadow'), although it is uncertain why the artist should have started his apprenticeship so late. There are no documented pictures surviving from Campain's hand, but Rogier van der Weyden is generally agreed to be identical with the Master of Flémalle, so the whole question of Rogier's relationship with his master is based on stylistic analysis. Some scholars have assumed that the Master of Flémalle should be identified with the young Rogier van der Weyden rather than with Campin, but the prevailing opinion is now that Rogier's work shows a development from the powerfully naturalistic and expressive style of his master towards greater refinement and spirituality. Rogier's celebrated Deposition (Prado, Madrid), for example, is close to the Master of Flémalle's Crucified Thief fragment (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt) in its dramatic power and use of a plain gold background, but it has a new poignancy and exaltedness. The Deposition, like all of Rogier van der Weyden paintings, is undated, but it must be earlier than 1443, when a copy was made.

By 1436 Rogier had moved to Brussels and been appointed official painter to the city. Apart from making a pilgrimage to Rome in 1450, Rogier van der Weyden is never known to have left Brussels again. Rogier van der Weyden painting for the city included secular work -- four large panels (destroyed in 1695) on the theme of justice for the court room of the town hall, for example -- but all of his surviving paintings are either religious pictures or portraits. Rogier van der Weyden was extremely inventive ichnographically and compositionally, and was a master of depicting human emotion. Unlike Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden seems to have had a large workshop with numerous assistants and pupils, and many of his compositions are known in several versions.

His influence was strong and widespread; in his own lifetime Rogier van der Weyden paintings were sent all over Europe, and his emotional and dramatic style found more followers than the quiet perfection of van Eyck. Portraits of Rogier van der Weyden, usually serene and aristocratic, were also much imitated, influencing Netherlandish art until the end of the 15th century.