Olga's Gallery

Rogier van der Weyden at Artprice. To look at auction records, find Weyden's works in upcoming auctions, check price levels and indexes for his works, read his biography and view his signature, access the Artprice database.             Rogier van der Weyden was the most important representative of Netherlandish painting in the years immediately following Jan and Hubert van Eyck. Like no other painter of the 15th century outside Italy, he developed compositional and figural principles, which were adopted into every genre of painting north of the Alps. We should not underestimate the extent of his influence in Italy, where he was considered one of the most important artists of his day.
Rogier was born in Tournai around 1399/1400, son of the cutler Henry de le Pasture and Agnes de Wattrelos. In 1426, he married Elisabeth Goffaerts (c. 1405-1477). In 1427, Rogier’s first son, Corneille (d. 1473), who later studied in Louvain, and became a Carthusian monk in Hérinnes in 1449/49, was born.
            Rogier was apprenticed to Campin in 1427 – a surprisingly late date. But having only become a master in 1432, in 1436 he was appointed official painter to the city of Brussels. Rogier came to Brussels in 1435, changing his name from the French ‘de le Pasture’ to its Flemish equivalent, which is ‘van der Weyden’.
             Rogier took as his starting point the three-dimensional figures of Campin and Jan van Eyck and proceeded to clarify their anatomical structure. At the same time, he perfected the depiction of interiors and landscapes in proper perspective. Direct references to earlier masters – as, for example, in his several surviving versions of St. Luke painting the Virgin, which refer to Jan van Eyck’s The Virgin of the Chancellor Rolin – became far less frequent from about 1440 as he strove to find an artistic balance between depth and plane. Figures grew more slender, draperies and interior décor became more elegant. A visit to Rome in the year of 1449/50 led to an exchange between art north and south of the Alps, which would prove one of the most fruitful of the entire 15th century.
            When Rogier died in Brussels on June 18, 1464, he was the best known and most sought after painter in the Netherlands, a standard for the majority of artists north of the Alps. He left behind him not only an obviously large workshop with extremely well trained assistants, but also a continuing demand for his work. The studio was very probably taken over by his son Pieter (1437-after 1514), also a painter.

Seven Sacraments Altarpiece. The left-hand part shows the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and penance; the sacrament of the Eucharist is being performed at the rood screen altar in the central nave. The right-hand part contains the sacraments of ordination, marriage, and extreme unction.  The angels hovering above these scenes wear the appropriate liturgical colors, and are holding scrolls with texts explaining the significance of the various sacraments.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Seven Sacraments Altarpiece.

Mary Magdalene. This panel was sawn out of a larger painting, most parts of which are lost, but St. Joseph panel, is, undoubtfully, the upper part of the figure, which stands behind Mary Magdalene. The head of St. Catherine, also seems to belong to the same painting. More.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Mary Magdalene. St. Joseph. St. Catherine.

Beaune Altarpiece. Christ as Judge is speaking the Latin words, written in black and white, from the Gospel according to St. Matthew: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”, and “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”. The lilies coming out of his mouth on the right are signs of mercy, and the fiery sword on the left is the sign of his anger. The archangel Michael is supplying the evidence for the judgment of souls by weighing their sins against their virtues.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Beaune Altarpiece, interior showing the Last Judgment. Beaune Altarpiece, exterior without the upper wings. Beaune Altarpiece. Central part.

Braque Triptych. On the central panel, the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist turn toward Christ. On the left-hand panel is St. John the Baptist, and on the right-hand one is Mary Magdalene. The landscape behind St. John the Baptist bears the most important of his deeds: baptism of Christ. The left frame bears a saying in French uttered by the skull: “See, you who are so proud and avaricious, my body was once beautiful but now is food for worms”. The inscription on the cross on the right is from the apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus (Ch. 41,1-2) and laments the bitterness of death.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Braque Triptych. Outer wings. Braque Triptych, interior.

Anthony of Burgundy was received into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1456, and is shown here wearing its chain. The significance of the arrow is not clear, but it could be the emblem of the ‘archer king’ (winner of the annual archery contest) of a highly regarded guild of bowmen. Anthony became ‘king’ of the Ghent archers’ guild in 1463.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Portrait of Anthony of Burgundy.

In 1444 Francesco d’Este (ca.1430-after 1475) had come from Ferrata to the Burgundian court, where he grew up with the duke’s son Charles the Bold. The meaning of the hammer and ring has not been explained, but they are probably symbols of some office, perhaps that of the judge of a tournament. His coat of arms is painted on the reverse of the panel.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Portrait of Francesco d'Este.

Jean de Gros was secretary to Philip the Good around 1459, and entered the service of his son Charles in 1456. In the reign of Charles the Bold he became a powerful and much disliked tax collector, and accumulated great wealth. He was imprisoned after the death of Charles, but freed through the intervention of Mary of Burgundy, and died in 1484. He still appears very young in this portrait.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Portrait of Jean de Gros.

Philippe de Croy (1435-1511) was a member of the most distinguished Burgundian nobility: In 1457, he was chamberlain to Philip the Good, he was administrator of Hainault in 1456-1465, and finally, in 1473, he became a knight of the order of the Golden Fleece.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Portrait of Philippe de Croy.

Medici Madonna. The Virgin Mary stands with St. Peter and St. John the Baptist on her right and doctor saints Cosmas and Damian on her left. Lilies in the foreground symbolize the purity of Mary.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Medici Madonna.

St. George and the Dragon, this small painting (only 14.3 X 10.5 cm) arouses arguments among art historians.  The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, which possesses it, identifies it as the work of Rogier; but the coloration is so untypical for Rogier, that its belonging to the artist is doubtful. More.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. St. George and the Dragon.

Charles the Bold (1433-1477), Duke of Burgundy since 1467, son of Philip the Good  (1396-1467), Duke of Burgundy. On the portrait he wears the emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by his father and of which he became a member at birth.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Portrait of Charles the Bold.

Dream of Pope Sergius. The scene is set around 705 in Rome. An angel appears to Pope Sergius in a dream, telling him to appoint a pilgrim named Hubert to the office of the murdered Bishop of Liège, St. Lambert. At the very back, outside the portal of a cathedral, the Pope is giving Hubert the Episcopal crozier and miter.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Dream of Pope Sergius.

Exhumation of St. Hubert took place in 825, when the  relic of St. Hubert were transferred from his tomb in St. Peter’s Church, Liege, to Benedictine abbey of Andage. Bishop Walcaud of Liege, swinging a censer, is in the foreground on the left. Emperor Louis the Pious (778-840) and Archbishop Adelward of Cologne are kneeling accordingly on the left and on the right side of the altar.
See: Rogier van der Weyden. Exhumation of St. Hubert.

Bibliography:
Rogies van der Weyden. Lukas Painting Madonna. by N. Nikulin. Moscow-Leningrad. 1964.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Van Der Weyden by Lorne Campbell. Chaucer Press, 2005.
Rogier van der Weyden. St. Luke Drawing the Virgin. Selected Essays in Context. by C. Purtle. Brepols Publishers, 1998.
Rogier van der Weyden: Rogier de le Pasture by Albert Châtelet. Gallimard, 1999.
Early Netherlandish Painting from Rogier van der Weyden to Gerard David. by Otto Pacht, Monika Rosenauer. Harvey Miller, 1997.