Rogier van der Weyden

Background

Rogier van der Weyden was born about 1399-1400 in Tournai, Belgium, into the family of Henri de le Pasture and Agnes de Watrélos.

Education

Rogier van der Weyden attended Robert Campin's workshop during the period from 1427 to 1432.

Career

Rogier van der Weyden was appointed city painter in Brussels in 1436. With the exception of a pilgrimage to Rome in 1450, Weyden resided in Brussels for the rest of his life.

Weyden neither signed nor dated his paintings and thus created major stylistic and chronological problems for recent historians of his art. The central issue is the relationship of Weyden to his master, Campin. This is especially critical in light of the fact, that Campin is now most generally identified as the painter of a group of works, formerly attributed to the anonymous Master of Flémalle. Weyden's close connection to the style of these paintings can be seen most clearly in the "Annunciation" (Paris), which is one of the earliest works, attributable to him. Numerous details of the setting, as well as the spatial construction, plainly rely on works by Campin, yet major stylistic differences are also apparent. In place of Campin's earthy, robust figures, Weyden has substituted longer, more elegant types, who enact the religious scene before, rather than within, the deep space of the room. A tendency to emphasize line over plastic shape and a greater sensibility to color are also marked features of Weyden's style, that clearly demarcate his work from that of the Master of Flémalle. In short, few scholars today would subscribe to the once fashionable thesis, that Weyden and the Master of Flémalle are one and the same painter.

The work of the period from about 1435 to 1445 is characterized by a developing awareness of the style of Jan van Eyck and a lessening of the Campin influence. Weyden's "St. Luke Painting the Virgin" (Boston) is largely based upon an Eyckian scheme, but contains several typical Weydenian transformations. In place of Van Eyck's detailed treatment of the complexity and multiplicity of the external world, Weyden has substituted a reduced and simplified setting in order to heighten the spiritual content.

The "Crucifixion Triptych" (Vienna) (1440-1445) marks the boundary between the early style and the mature phase of Weyden's work. The painting still retains several Eyckian features, such as the continuous landscape background across all three panels, but it also introduces a new emotive quality in the sense of dramatic immediacy. In this connection, another important innovation is the inclusion of two donors directly within the drama. Close in spirit to the "Vienna Crucifixion" is the great "Deposition" panel in Madrid. The date of this work and the source of many of the influences, that inspired it, are still widely disputed, but the painting is universally recognized for its unique expression force. Based upon a sculptural device of compressing a maximum of form into a minimum of space, the work evokes sentiments of profound religiosity and emotional intensity. As one of the most influential paintings of its time, Weyden's "Deposition" firmly established the iconography for this subject for over half a century.

This period is initiated by the magnificent "Last Judgment Altarpiece" (Beaune) (late 1446), executed for Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of Burgundy. This gigantic altarpiece measures about 18 feet across, when the wings are opened. Of all Weyden's paintings, none more fully reveals the artist's fundamental "Gothicism" in combination with a creative approach to the art of the past. In its austere and hieratic frontality, the painting displays the influence of Gothic sculpture, yet the absence of demons and other traditional symbols of the tortures of hell suggests a highly subjective, almost modern conception of Christian eschatology. Stylistically, the work is distinguished by a greater attenuation of form and a more sophisticated treatment of line and color.

Weyden's journey to Rome in 1450 is evidenced by two paintings, the "Entombment" (Florence) and the "Virgin and Child with Peter, John the Baptist, Cosmas and Damian" (Frankfurt), which are based on unique Italian iconographies, yet remain thoroughly northern in style. The "Braque Triptych" (Paris), however, reveals a new, monumentalized conception of form, that could only derive from a close study and appreciation of Italian painting. The synthesis of the newly acquired "monumental style" with Weyden's inherently abstemious outlook is achieved in the "Bladelin Triptych" (Berlin-Dahlem), an altarpiece, painted for Pierre Bladelin, Receiver General of Burgundy. The theme of the Nativity is here treated in a manner, that effectively fuses the painter's concern for both planar and spatial values. This is partially achieved by the use of a classic, triangular composition to stabilize the fluid, interlocking movement of forms upon the surface of the painting.

Weyden's so-called "ultima maniera", which dates from about 1456 until his death in 1464, is based upon a sense of heightened spiritual refinement in combination with an increasing pictorial asceticism. This late style is first revealed in the austerely beautiful "Crucifixion Diptych" (Philadelphia), in which the artist reduced the setting to a bare stone wall to heighten and dramatize the emotional content. Forms are elongated and dematerialized, thus conveying the spiritual message of the work in essentially abstract and stylized terms.

The "St. Columba Altarpiece" (Munich) is the latest of Weyden's surviving works and forms a noble conclusion to his career. In this painting, his only treatment of the theme of the Adoration of the Magi, Weyden attains a total harmony of fluid surface design with formal balance and clarified spatial organization. Graphic beauty is achieved without sacrifice of mass or volume, while grace and elegance are revealed within a context of significant spirituality.

One of the most passionate of all religious painters, Weyden created a magisterial synthesis as his final legacy to northern painting. Weyden's portraits reflect a stylistic development similar to that, found in the religious works. The "Portrait of a Young Lady" (Berlin) is an early work, composed in the cold and detached manner of Jan van Eyck. The elegant "Portrait of a Lady" (Washington) conforms to the more refined style of Weyden's middle period. Stylization and linear abstraction are here employed in order to impose the painter's own sense of aristocratic reserve upon the sitter. As a consequence, the work becomes a study of Weyden's own character, rather than an objective statement of fact, concerning another individual.

Achievements

• Rogier van der Weyden was one of the founding fathers of the main traditions of early Netherlandish painting.
  
  The impact of Weyden's art on European painting was so great as to virtually defy calculation. His influence can be seen in the next generation of Flemish painters and was also present to some degree in the work of almost every important French, German and Spanish artist of the second half of the 15th century.
  
  Rogier received numerous commissions during his lifetime, including the one from Philip the Good.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Crucifixion Diptych

  • Saint John Altarpiece

  • Madonna and Child

  • Christ Appears to Mary

  • Virgin and Child

  • Deposition

  • Portrait of a Young Woman in a Pinned Hat

  • Saint George and the Dragon

  • Madonna and Child

  • Portrait of a Young Man

  • Exhumation of Saint Hubert

  • Portrait of a Young Woman

  • The Annunciation

  • Crucifixion and Pieta Representations

  • St. Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Virgin Mary

  • Dream of Pope Sergius

  • Lamentation

  • Crucifixion

  • Mary Altarpiece

  • Saint Catherine

  • The Magdalene Reading

  • Visitation of Mary

  • Abegg Triptych

  • Miniature from the first page of the Chroniques de Hainaut

  • Scupstoel

  • Man Holding Book

  • Braque Family Triptych

  • Pierre Bladelin Triptych

  • Portrait of Jean de Gros

  • Portrait of Philippe le Bon

  • Saint Ivo

  • Saint Jerome and the Lion

  • Saints Margaret and Apollonia

  • Seven Sacraments Altarpiece

  • Isabella of Portugal

  • Lamentation

  • Portrait of a Man

  • Portrait of Jean le Belliqueux

  • Virgin with the Child and Four Saints

  • Virgin and Child

  • Saint Columba Altarpiece

  • Virgin with the Blessing Child

  • Triptych of the Redemption

  • Saint Mary Magdalene

  • Crucifixion Diptych

  • Portrait of a Lady

  • Portrait of Antoine, Bastard of Burgundy

  • Portrait of Francesco d'Este

  • Portrait of Philippe de Croy

Religion

Scholars and art historians speculate, that van der Weyden was a deeply devout Catholic, who fathered a devout family. As well as actively participating in the Brussels Confraternity of the Holy Cross and making a number of charitable donations, van der Weyden's eldest son, Cornelius, was a Carthusian monk.

Views

Rogier's artistic style was one, that relied on realistic observation to a larger degree, than other painters before him.

Membership

• 

  Guild of Saint Luke

  1432

Interests

• Artists

  Jan van Eyck

Connections

Rogier married Elisabeth Goffaert in 1426. The couple had four children - Cornelius, Margaretha, Pieter and Jan.

Father:

Henri de le Pasture

Mother:

Agnes de Watrélos

Wife:

Elisabeth Goffaert

Son:

Cornelius van der Weyden

Daughter:

Margaretha van der Weyden

Son:

Pieter van der Weyden

Son:

Jan van der Weyden

teacher:

Robert Campin

Friend:

Jacques Daret

Jacques Daret was an Early Netherlandish painter, born in Tournai (now in Belgium), where he spent much of his life.

References

• Rogier van der Weyden: Masters of Dutch Art Book by Stephan Kemperdick.
  1999
• Rogier van der Weyden: The Complete Works This sumptuously produced and gorgeously illustrated book is the first comprehensive study of van der Weyden's work in 25 years.
  1999
• Rogier van der Weyden: An Essay, with a Critical Catalogue of Paintings, Assigned to Him and to Robert Campin Book by Martin Davies.
  1972
• 90 Color Paintings of Rogier van der Weyden - Flemish Renaissance Painter This work by Jacek Michalak includes 90 high quality reproductions of van der Weyden's greatest masterpieces with title and date.
  2012
• Rogier van der Weyden Book by Hermann Theodor Beenken.
  1951