Rogier van der Weyden, initially known as Roger de la Pasture, was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly successful in his lifetime; his paintings were exported to Italy and Spain, and he received commissions from, amongst others, Philip the Good, Netherlandish nobility, and foreign aristocrats. By the latter half of the 15th century, he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity. However his fame lasted only until the 17th century, and largely due to changing taste, he was almost totally forgotten by the mid-18th century. His reputation was slowly rebuilt during the 200 years that followed; today he is known, with Robert Campin and Van Eyck, as the third of the three great Early Netherlandish artists, and widely as the most influential Northern painter of the 15th century.
Paintings by Rogier van der Weyden
Beaune Altarpiece (1443)
The Beaune Altarpiece (or The Last Judgement) is a large polyptych c. 1443–1451 altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, painted in oil on oak panels with parts later transferred to canvas. It consists of fifteen paintings on nine panels, of which six are painted on both sides. Unusually for the period, it retains some of its original frames.
Six of the outer panels (or shutters) have hinges for folding; when closed the exterior view of saints and donors is visible. The inner panels contain scenes from the Last Judgement arranged across two registers. The large central panel spans both registers and shows Christ seated on a rainbow in judgement, while below him, the Archangel Michael holds scales to weigh souls. The lower register panels form a continuous landscape, with the panel on the far proper right showing the gates of Heaven, while the entrance to Hell is on the far proper left. Between these, the dead rise from their graves, and are depicted moving from the central panel to their final destinations after receiving judgement.
Portrait of a Lady (van der Weyden) (1460)
Portrait of a Lady (or Portrait of a Woman) is a small oil-on-oak panel painting executed around 1460 by the Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The composition is built from the geometric shapes that form the lines of the woman's veil, neckline, face, and arms, and by the fall of the light that illuminates her face and headdress. The vivid contrasts of darkness and light enhance the almost unnatural beauty and Gothic elegance of the model.
Van der Weyden was preoccupied by commissioned portraiture towards the end of his life and was highly regarded by later generations of painters for his penetrating evocations of character. In this work, the woman's humility and reserved demeanour are conveyed through her fragile physique, lowered eyes and tightly grasped fingers. She is slender and depicted according to the Gothic ideal of elongated features, indicated by her narrow shoulders, tightly pinned hair, high forehead and the elaborate frame set by the headdress. It is the only known portrait of a woman accepted as an autograph work by van der Weyden, yet the sitter's name is not recorded and he did not title the work.
Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin (1490)
Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin is a large oil and tempera on oak panel painting, usually dated between 1435 and 1440, attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. Housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, it shows Luke the Evangelist, patron saint of artists, sketching the Virgin Mary as she nurses the Child Jesus. The figures are positioned in a bourgeois interior which leads out towards a courtyard, river, town and landscape. The enclosed garden, illusionistic carvings of Adam and Eve on the arms of Mary's throne, and attributes of St Luke are amongst the painting's many iconographic symbols.
Van der Weyden was strongly influenced by Jan van Eyck, and the painting is very similar to the earlier Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, usually dated to around 1434, with significant differences. The figure's positioning and colourisation are reversed, and Luke takes centre stage; his face is accepted as van der Weyden's self-portrait. Three near contemporary versions are in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, and the Groeningemuseum, Bruges. The Boston panel is widely considered the original from underdrawings that are both heavily reworked and absent in other versions. It is in relatively poor condition, having suffered considerable damage, which remains despite extensive restoration and cleaning.
The Descent from the Cross (van der Weyden) (1440)
The Descent from the Cross (or Deposition of Christ, or Descent of Christ from the Cross, or in Flemish Kruisafneming) is a panel painting by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden created c. 1435, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. The crucified Christ is lowered from the cross, his lifeless body held by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.
The c. 1435 date is estimated based on the work's style, and because the artist acquired wealth and renown around this time, most likely from the prestige this masterwork brought him. It was painted early in his career, shortly after he completed his apprenticeship with Robert Campin and shows the older painter's influence, most notable in the hard sculpted surfaces, realistic facial features and vivid primary colours, mostly reds, whites and blues. The work was a self-conscious attempt by van der Weyden to create a masterpiece that would establish an international reputation. Van der Weyden positioned Christ's body in the T-shape of a crossbow to reflect the commission from the Leuven guild of archers (Schutterij) for their chapel Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-van-Ginderbuiten (Notre-Dame-hors-les-Murs).
Saint Columba Altarpiece (1453)
The Saint Columba Altarpiece (or Adoration of the Kings) is a large c. 1450–1455 oil-on-oak wood panel altarpiece by Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden painted during his late period. It was commissioned for the church of St. Columba in Cologne, and is now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. It depict scenes from the early life of Jesus plus a crucifix with him on the cross. They show, from left to right, the Annunciation (when Mary is visited by the archangel Gabriel), the Adoration of the Magi (when she gives birth in a stable) and the Presentation, when she presents the infant at the Temple in Jerusalem. In each panel, Mary is distinguished by her blue clothes. The reverse of the exterior panels are covered with plain paint and lack indication that they ever contained donor portraits as were typical for the time.
The St. Columba church was founded in 1467 as a burial chapel: three years after van der Weyden's death. The triptych was frequently copied in the 15th and 16th centuries and inspired some of Hans Memling's works, among them the Jan Floreins Altarpiece. The work draws inspiration from Stefan Lochner's Altarpiece of the Patron Saints of Cologne (1440s), which Van der Weyden is known to have seen. The triptych was attributed to Jan van Eyck for a period in the 19th century.
Miraflores Altarpiece (1443)
The Miraflores Altarpiece (or Triptych of the Virgin, or The Altar of Our Lady or the Mary Altarpiece) is a c. 1442-5 oil-on-oak wood panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden, in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin since 1850.
The altarpiece examines Mary's relationship with Christ at different stages of his life. The panels show, from left to right, a portrait of the Holy Family, a Pietà (the Virgin cradling the dead body of Jesus) and Christ's appearance to Mary—a chronological reading of the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, with Mary the focus of both wings.
The Magdalen Reading (1445)
The Magdalen Reading is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid-15th-century oil-on-panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The panel, originally oak, was completed some time between 1435 and 1438 and has been in the National Gallery, London since 1860.
It shows a woman with the pale skin, high cheek bones and oval eyelids typical of the idealised portraits of noble women of the period. She is identifiable as the Magdalen from the jar of ointment placed in the foreground, which is her traditional attribute in Christian art. She is presented as completely absorbed in her reading, a model of the contemplative life, repentant and absolved of past sins. In Catholic tradition the Magdalen was conflated with both Mary of Bethany who anointed the feet of Jesus with oil and the unnamed "sinner" of Luke 7:36–50. Iconography of the Magdalen commonly shows her with a book, in a moment of reflection, in tears, or with eyes averted.
Seven Sacraments Altarpiece (1453)
The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece is a fixed-wing triptych by the Early Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden and his workshop. It was painted from 1445 to 1450, probably for a church in Poligny (Max J. Friedländer claimed that it was commissioned by the Bishop Jean Chevrot), and is now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp. It depicts the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church. On the left panel are baptism, confirmation and confession and on the right hand panel the ordination of a priest, marriage and the last rites.
The scene takes place in the interior of a Gothic church looking towards the high altar. There is a groin vault ceiling that goes down the nave. There are colonettes with piers that separate the nave from the side aisle. The arcade also features pointed arches, a triforium, and a clearstory which are all elements of gothic architecture. This altarpiece features three distinct panels that all work together to tell about the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church: Baptism, Holy Communion, Confession, Matrimony, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Confirmation. The central panel (possibly the only autograph part of the work) is dominated by a crucifixion in the foreground, with the sacrament of the Eucharist in the background. The middle panel is all about the Eucharist titled Christ on the Cross and Eucharist. At the back of the middle panel, a priest is seen elevating the Host while at the altar.
Braque Triptych (1452)
The Braque Triptych (or the Braque Family Triptych) is a c. 1452 oil-on-oak altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. When open, its three half-length panels reveal, from left to right, John the Baptist, The Virgin Mary with Jesus and Saint John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene. When the wings are closed, the work shows a vanitas motif of a skull and cross.
The Braque Triptych is the only surviving devotional work by van der Weyden known to be painted for private rather than public display. The altarpiece was probably commissioned by either Jehan Braque of Tournai or, more likely, his wife Catherine de Brabant – possibly after Jehan's sudden and early death in 1452. The couple had been married for only a brief period. Catherine was much younger than her husband; when they married in 1450 or early 1451, she was 20 and some 12 or 13 years his junior. She evidently held a deep and lasting affection for him. When she died, almost 50 years after him, she had asked to be buried alongside him, despite remarrying years earlier.
Saint John Altarpiece (van der Weyden) (1455)
The Saint John Altarpiece (German: Johannesaltar, Johannestafel or Johannesretabel) is triptych of c. 1455 in oils on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. The triptych is linked to the artist's earlier Miraflores Altarpiece in its symbolic motifs, format and intention. The painting was featured in the 1980 BBC Two series 100 Great Paintings.
The panels show – from left to right – the birth of Saint John the Baptist, his baptism of Christ in the River Jordan, and his beheading, with Salome receiving the disembodied head on a plate. Each panel is set within painted archivolts, which contain painted reliefs depicting statuettes of the Apostles, and scenes from the lives of both Christ and Saint John, with the overall theme of salvation. The fictive sculptural reliefs are painted in grisaille, and give the impression that the scenes are set within a church.
Lamentation of Christ (van der Weyden) (1450)
The Lamentation of Christ is an oil-on-panel painting of the common subject of the Lamentation of Christ by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, dating from around 1460–1463 and now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
The work is perhaps the "altarpiece [with] Our Lord's sepulchre [...] and other five figures" which appear in the inventory made in 1492 at the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, and which decorated his Villa at Careggi since as early as 1482. The panel was thus one of the works commissioned by the Medici to van der Weyden, including the Medici Madonna now at Städel of Frankfurt, which has been also assigned to the artist's trip to Italy in 1450. Another hypothesis is that the panel was part of a lost triptych painted for Lionello d'Este of Ferrara, and mentioned in 1449, or that it was the painting described by Giorgio Vasari as Hans Memling's.
Durán Madonna (1435)
Durán Madonna (also known as the Madonna in Red or Virgin and Child in a Niche or Madonna Enthroned) is an oil on oak panel painting completed sometime between 1435 and 1438 by the Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The painting derives from Jan van Eyck's Ince Hall Madonna and was much imitated subsequently. Now in the Prado, Madrid, it depicts a seated and serene Virgin Mary dressed in a long, flowing red robe lined with gold-coloured thread. She cradles the child Jesus who sits on her lap, playfully leafing backwards through a holy book or manuscript on which both figures' gazes rest. But unlike van Eyck's earlier treatment, van der Weyden not only positions his Virgin and Child in a Gothic apse or niche as he had his two earlier madonnas (the Madonna Standing and the Virgin and Child Enthroned), but also places them on a projecting plinth, thus further emphasising their sculptural impression.
Christ appears much older than in most contemporary paintings of this kind. He is shown as a small child, but with none of the softness characteristic of 15th-century depictions of the Virgin and Child. The painting has a sculptural look that van der Weyden often favoured, and is similar in colour to his c. 1435 Descent from the Cross (Madrid) and c. 1442–45 Miraflores Altarpiece (Berlin).