Rogier van
der Weyden
born 1399/1400, Tournai, Fr.
died June 18, 1464, Brussels
French Rogier De La Pasture Flemish painter who, with the possible
exception of Jan van Eyck, was the most influential northern European
artist of his time. Though most of his work was religious, he produced
secular paintings (now lost) and some sensitive portraits.
Rogier was the son of a master cutler,and his childhood must have been
spent in the comfortable surroundings of the rising class of merchants
and craftsmen. He may even have acquired a university education, for in
1426 he was honouredby the city as “Maistre (Master) Rogier de la
Pasture” and began his painting career only the next year at the rather
advanced age of 27. It was then, on March 5, 1427, that Rogier enrolled
as an apprentice in the workshop of Robert Campin, the foremost painter
in Tournai and dean of the painters' guild. Rogier remained in Campin's
atelier for five years, becoming an independent master of the guild on
Aug. 1, 1432. From Campin, Rogier learned the ponderous, detailed
realism that characterizes his earliest paintings, and so alike, in
fact, are the styles of these two masters that connoisseurs still do not
agree on the attribution of certain works. But the theory that the
entire sequence of paintings credited to Campin (who, like Rogier, did
not sign his panels) are actually from the brush of the young Rogier
cannot be maintained. Careful study of secure works by Rogier and by his
colleague in Campin's workshop, Jacques Daret, permit scholars to
reestablish a basic series of works by the older master and to
distinguish the style of these from that of Rogier.
Campin was not the only source of inspiration in Rogier's art. Jan van
Eyck, the great painter from Bruges, also profoundly affected the
developing artist, introducing elegance and subtle visual refinements
into the bolder, Campinesque components of such early paintings by
Rogier as “St. Luke Painting the Virgin.” Although as an apprentice
Rogier must certainly have met Jan van Eyck when the latter visited
Tournai in 1427, it was more likely in Bruges, where Rogier may have
resided between 1432 and 1435, that he became thoroughly acquainted with
van Eyck's style.
By 1435, Rogier, now a mature master, settled in Brussels, the native
city of his wife, Elizabeth Goffaert, whom he had married in 1426. The
next year he was appointed city painter; and it was from this time that
he began to use the Flemish translation of his name (van der Weyden).
Rogierremained in Brussels the rest of his life, although he never
completely severed his ties with Tournai. He was commissioned to paint a
mural (now destroyed) for the town hall of Brussels showing famous
historical examples of the administration of justice. During this same
period, around 1435–40, he completed the celebrated panel of the
“Descentfrom the Cross” (see ) for the chapel of the Archers' Guild of
Louvain. In this deposition there is evident a tendency to reduce the
setting of a scene to a shallow, shrinelike enclosure and to orchestrate
a rich diversity of emotions. These devotional qualities are even more
striking in Rogier's works of the 1440s such as the twin
“Granada-Miraflores” altarpieces and the “Last Judgment Polyptych” in
Beaune, Fr. (Hôtel-Dieu). In these the settings are stark, the figures
are delicate Gothic types, and the action, though stilled, is
exquisitely expressive. The removalof Rogier's art from concern with
outward appearances and his return to medieval conventions is
surprising; for it was during this decade that Rogier's international
reputation was secured and commissions increased from noblemen such as
Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, and his powerful chancellor, Nicolas
Rolin. Rogier may well have also been influenced by the writings of
Thomas à Kempis, the most popular theologian of the era, whose
“practical mysticism,” like Rogier's painting, stressed empathetic
response to episodes from the lives of Mary, Christ, and the saints.
Perhaps as an extension of a journey to install the “Last Judgment
Altarpiece” in Rolin's chapel at Beaune or possibly to obtain a plenary
indulgence for his daughter Margaret, oneof Rogier's four children, who
had died that year, the renowned painter visited Rome during the Jubilee
of 1450. He was warmly received in Italy. Praise from the Humanist
Bartolomeo Fazio and the eminent theologian Nicholas of Cusa is
recorded; Rogier also received commissions from the powerful Este family
of Ferrara and the Medici of Florence. He painted a portrait of
Francesco d'Este (originallythought to be Leonello d'Este), and his
painting of the Madonna and Child that still remains in Florence
(Uffizi) bears the arms and patron saints of the Medici.
While on his pilgrimage, Rogier apparently tutored Italian masters in
painting with oils, a technique in which Flemish painters of the time
were particularly adept. He also seems to have learned a great deal from
what he viewed. Although he was primarily attracted to the conservative
painters Gentile da Fabriano and Fra Angelico, whose medievalizing
styles paralleled his own, Rogier was also acquainted with more
progressive trends. In the “St. John Altarpiece” and the “Seven
Sacraments Triptych,” executed between 1451 and 1455, shortly after
Rogier's return north, his characteristic austerity is tempered by his
recollection of the more robust Italian styles; and, in both, the panels
are unified from a single point of view. Despite this enrichment,
however, Rogier's conceptions remained essentially iconic: he pushed the
figures into the foreground and isolated them from their surroundings as
subjects for devotion.
The last 15 years of his life brought Rogier the rewards due an
internationally famous painter and exemplary citizen. He received
numerous commissions, which he carried out with the assistance of a
large workshop that included his own son Peter and his successor as city
painter, Vranck van der Stockt, a mediocre imitator. Even before his
death, however, Rogier's impact extended far beyond his immediate
associates. The influence of his expressive but technically less
intricate style eclipsed that of both Campin and van Eyck. Every Flemish
painter of the succeeding generation—Petrus Christus, Dirck Bouts, Hugo
van der Goes, and Hans Memling (who may have studied in Rogier's
atelier)—depended on his formulations; and, during the 16th century,
Rogierian ideas were transformed and revitalized by Quinten Massys and
Bernard van Orley. Rogier's art was also a vehicle for transporting the
Flemish style throughout Europe, and during the second half of the 15th
century his influence dominated painting in France, Germany, and Spain.
Nevertheless, the fame of Rogier van der Weyden quicklywaned, and no
painting by him had been signed or dated. By the end of the 16th century
the biographer Carel van Mander had referred mistakenly to two Rogiers
in Het Schilderboek (1603; “Book of Painters”), and by the middle of the
19th century his fame and art had all but been forgotten. Only through a
meticulous evaluation of the documents have scholars over the past
century been able to reconstruct Rogier's work and to restore the
reputation of one of 15th-century Flanders' leading masters.
Herbert Leon Kessler
