Head of the Madonna
Netherlandish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1400-1464
major early Flemish master, known also as Roger de la Pasture. He is believed to have studied with Robert Campin. His early works also show the influence of Jan van Eyck. Van Eyck, however, had been a master at objective rendering of detail, whereas Roger in his work portrayed emotions with an assurance that has not been surpassed. His ability to depict piety is reflected in the early masterpiece Descent from the Cross (c.1435; Prado); he depicted with significant restraint the profound grief of the mourners grouped around the tragic figure of Jesus. His composition strongly affected later representations of the theme. Roger became City Painter in Brussels in 1436. He then produced a series of undated altarpieces including the Last Judgment (hospital, Beaune), the Braque Triptych (Louvre), Crucifixion with Donors (Vienna), and Adoration of the Magi (Berlin), which vary in execution from a stress on sumptuous details to a more sculptural rendering of the figures. Roger is believed to have made a pilgrimage to Italy in the holy year 1450. Whether this supposed excursion had any effect on his style is much debated. It has been shown that his Entombment (Uffizi) bears an affinity to the Tuscan treatment of the subject, particularly by Fra Angelico, and that Roger's Virgin and Child with Saints (Frankfurt) has a strong resemblance to the Italian religious art of the day. His style is, however, highly individual. His religious paintings and his portraits are characterized by a straightforward monumentality. The portraits, such as that of a young lady (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.) and of Francesco d'Este (Metropolitan Mus.) exhibit a simple clarity of contour and psychological penetration. Other notable works are his St. Luke Painting the Virgin, of which a version or replica is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Crucifixion 1460 Silverpoint on prepared paper, 128 x 109 mm Mus?e du Louvre, Paris The finely drawn Head of the Madonna is obviously not from life. It represents a type of the Virgin very frequent in Rogier's work, and comparable to the panel of the Madonna that was one leaf of a diptych, with the other showing Jean Gros (Mus?e des Beaux-Arts, Tournai, and Art Institute, Chicago). A similar painting must have been the model for this drawing, which executes the face in fine detail, translating colour values into black and white, for instance in the lips, but breaks sharply with this precision where the head-dress begins; the folds of the cloth are merely suggested by a few outlines obviously copied from an existing model. In all its details, including the folds of the headdress, the drawing resembles the head of a half length painted Madonna from the circle around Rogier, now on permanent loan to the Kurpfalzisches Museum, Heidelberg. It could either precede the drawing, which may have been from Rogier's workshop, or have been painted from it. The Head of the Madonna, however, conveys an impression of what some of the drawings in the stocks of Rogier's workshop may have been like.Artist:WEYDEN, Rogier van der Title: Head of the Madonna Painted in 1401-1450 , Flemish - - graphics : study
Painting ID:: 63881
WEYDEN, Rogier van der Netherlandish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1400-1464
major early Flemish master, known also as Roger de la Pasture. He is believed to have studied with Robert Campin. His early works also show the influence of Jan van Eyck. Van Eyck, however, had been a master at objective rendering of detail, whereas Roger in his work portrayed emotions with an assurance that has not been surpassed. His ability to depict piety is reflected in the early masterpiece Descent from the Cross (c.1435; Prado); he depicted with significant restraint the profound grief of the mourners grouped around the tragic figure of Jesus. His composition strongly affected later representations of the theme. Roger became City Painter in Brussels in 1436. He then produced a series of undated altarpieces including the Last Judgment (hospital, Beaune), the Braque Triptych (Louvre), Crucifixion with Donors (Vienna), and Adoration of the Magi (Berlin), which vary in execution from a stress on sumptuous details to a more sculptural rendering of the figures. Roger is believed to have made a pilgrimage to Italy in the holy year 1450. Whether this supposed excursion had any effect on his style is much debated. It has been shown that his Entombment (Uffizi) bears an affinity to the Tuscan treatment of the subject, particularly by Fra Angelico, and that Roger's Virgin and Child with Saints (Frankfurt) has a strong resemblance to the Italian religious art of the day. His style is, however, highly individual. His religious paintings and his portraits are characterized by a straightforward monumentality. The portraits, such as that of a young lady (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.) and of Francesco d'Este (Metropolitan Mus.) exhibit a simple clarity of contour and psychological penetration. Other notable works are his St. Luke Painting the Virgin, of which a version or replica is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Crucifixion Head of the Madonna 1460 Silverpoint on prepared paper, 128 x 109 mm Mus?e du Louvre, Paris The finely drawn Head of the Madonna is obviously not from life. It represents a type of the Virgin very frequent in Rogier's work, and comparable to the panel of the Madonna that was one leaf of a diptych, with the other showing Jean Gros (Mus?e des Beaux-Arts, Tournai, and Art Institute, Chicago). A similar painting must have been the model for this drawing, which executes the face in fine detail, translating colour values into black and white, for instance in the lips, but breaks sharply with this precision where the head-dress begins; the folds of the cloth are merely suggested by a few outlines obviously copied from an existing model. In all its details, including the folds of the headdress, the drawing resembles the head of a half length painted Madonna from the circle around Rogier, now on permanent loan to the Kurpfalzisches Museum, Heidelberg. It could either precede the drawing, which may have been from Rogier's workshop, or have been painted from it. The Head of the Madonna, however, conveys an impression of what some of the drawings in the stocks of Rogier's workshop may have been like.Artist:WEYDEN, Rogier van der Title: Head of the Madonna Painted in 1401-1450 , Flemish - - graphics : study
