Rogier Van Der Weyden Research Paper

Rogier Van der Weyden was a Flemish painter of the mid-15th century. Rogier was chiefly influenced by his first teacher, Robert Campin. Although details of his early training are sketchy, it is generally accepted that he entered the workshop of Robert Campin, the foremost painter in Tournai and dean of the painters' guild, in 1427 at the age of 27 (http://www.belgium.be). Rogier remained in Campin's studio for five years, becoming an independent master of the guild on August 1, 1432. Van der Weyden was not permitted to sell his artwork while studying in Campin's shop. From Campin, Rogier learned the ponderous, detailed realism that characterizes his earliest paintings, and so alike are the styles of these two masters that critics still do not
agree on who painted certain works (http://www.abcgallery.com/W/weyden/weydenbio.html). Despite the fact that no surviving works are signed, many can be identified through documentary evidence, and through these the corpus of his work can be tentatively reconstructed (Encyclopedia of Art and Artists, 691). His early works, before 1430, present scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, as in the Annunciation these paintings closely resemble those of his master Campin but exhibit greater emotional and dramatic intensity than Campin achieved. Rogier's mature works, between 1430 and 1450, show an increasing interest in the theme of Christ's passion. They are characterized by cold colors, by rhythmic elongated lines by the elegant mannered poses of the figures, and especially by a tragic religious intensity that reached a peak in three versions of The Crucifixion (http://www.euro-art-gallery.net/history/weyden.htm). 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. It was in Bruges, where Rogier may have resided between 1432 and 1435, that he became thoroughly acquainted with van Eyck's style (http://humanitiesweb.org). The spiritual essence of a scene was displayed with similar technical virtuosity by Van der Weyden. His international renown was exceeded only by that of Hugo van der Goes, who united van Eyck's naturalism with penetrating studies of humanity(Eyewitness Books, Renaissance, 20.) Rogier may well have also been influenced by the writings of Thomas a Kempis, the most popular theologian of the era, whose "practical mysticism," like Rogier's paintings, stressed empathetic response to episodes from the lives of Mary, Christ, and the saints (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/weyden/). By translating the main ideas of Gothic Art into the new, lifelike style, Rogier did a great service to northern art. He saved much of the tradition of lucid design that might otherwise have been lost under the impact of Jan van Eyck's discoveries (The Story of Art, 276).

While on a pilgrimage to Italy in 1450, Rogier apparently tutored Italian masters in painting with oils, a technique in which Flemish painters of the time were particularly well known for.
He also seemed 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, Rogier was also acquainted with more progressive trends (http://gallery.euroweb.hu/bio/weyden/rogier/biograph.html). In the St. John Altarpiece and the Seven Sacraments Triptych, executed between 1451 and 1455, shortly after Rogier's return north, his characteristic style is altered by his recollection of the more robust Italian styles; and, in both, the panels are unified from a single point of view. Despite this, however, Rogier's paintings remained essentially iconic: he pushed the figures into the foreground and isolated them from their surroundings. The last 15 years of his life brought Rogier the success due an internationally famous painter and exemplary citizen (http://wwar.com/masters/w/weyden-vander.html). He received numerous commissions, which he carried out with the assistance of a large workshop that included his own son Pieter and his successor as city painter, Vranck van der Stockt. He left behind him not only a large workshop with extremely well trained assistants, but also a continuing demand for his work. The studio was taken over by Pieter, now also a painter (http://www.abcgallery.com/W/weyden/weydenbio.html). Even before his death, however, Rogier's influence extended far beyond his immediate associates. The influence of his expressive but less intricate style passed that of both Campin and van Eyck. Every Flemish painter of the next generation - Petrus Christus, Dierik Bouts, Hugo van der Goes, and Hans Memling - depended on Rogier's examples (http://7.1911encyclopedia.org/W/WE/WEYBRIDGE.htm). Rogier's art was also a way of transporting the Flemish style throughout Europe, and during the second half of the 15th century his influence dominated painting in France, Germany, and Spain, to which many of his recorded paintings were
sent.