WEYDEN, Rogier van der
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Entombment of Christ new21/WEYDEN, Rogier van der-379624.jpg ID de tableau:: 63869
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1450 Oil on oak panel, 110 x 96 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence It is believed - but without absolute certainty - that this Entombment is the centre of a polyptych which was acquired by Leonello d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, for the Study at Belfiore, when the painter went in pilgrimage to Rome in 1449, the year before the Jubilee. It is however more probable that this work - which is also mentioned as being in the Medicean Villa at Careggi - was done in 1449-50 at Florence, because it derives its compositive formula from the Deposition by Fra Angelico which can be seen in the predella of the altarpiece of St Mark in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. This painting, in a Renaissance frame decorated with pilasters, adorned the altar of the private chapel of the Medici villa in Careggi, near Florence. Cosimo de' Medici (1389 -1464) had built this country residence around the middle of the century, and there are good reasons to suppose that the Medici family, who must have owned Rogier's small panel of the Madonna (St?delsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt), also commissioned the larger painting. The work closely follows the Entombment of Christ which was part of an altarpiece by Fra Angelico, painted around 1440 for the Florentine monastery church of San Marco. Its influence is evident in the display of the dead man, shown almost standing, with Mary and John holding his arms one on each side, and more particularly in the hill with the tomb in the rock, which runs entirely counter to Northern European tradition. Fra Angelico's altarpiece, to which the picture of the Entombment, much imitated in Florence, also belonged, was itself an important donation by the Medici family. It is improbable that Rogier van der Weyden saw Fra Angelico's work by chance on his Italian journey, and then reworked it for his own Medici altarpiece - particularly as we do not know whether he passed through Florence at all on his way to Rome. The model was more probably prescribed for him by his patrons when the work was commissioned. Very likely they sent the master a sketch of the work they had donated, telling him to follow it. Such clear guidelines from Florence would also explain why the painting was executed in almost square format, unusual for Netherlandish works but common in Italy and suitable for the architectural Renaissance setting. The patrons who commissioned the work will have been as much struck by the fine, realistic detail of the painting of the Lamentation as by the intense emotion of the faces. These qualities, and the slight asymmetry that suited late Gothic taste, distinguish the picture in significant respects from the work of Fra Angelico. A two-dimensionality at least matching that of the St John Altarpiece (Staatliche Museen, Berlin), and not at all in line with the artistic ideals of the Renaissance, is particularly noticeable in the Magdalene kneeling at the front, her limbs compressed into the same plane. The painting can thus be associated with Rogier's late works coming after the St. Columba Altarpiece (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).Artist:WEYDEN, Rogier van der Title: Entombment of Christ Painted in 1401-1450 , Flemish - - painting : religious |
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Portrait Diptych of Laurent Froimont new21/WEYDEN, Rogier van der-738686.jpg ID de tableau:: 63870
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1460s Oil on oak panel, 49,3 x 31,5 cm Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp The reverse side of the portrait of Laaurent Froimont represents St Lawrence. The name of the subject of the portrait was deduced from this grisaille: St Lawrence (Laurent), with the instrument of his martyrdom, the gridiron, could be the patron after whom the sitter was named, the word "Froimont" on the scroll being the man's family name. However, this is not certain, and no one called Laurent Froimont has yet been traced.Artist:WEYDEN, Rogier van der Title: Portrait Diptych of Laurent Froimont (reverse side) Painted in 1401-1450 , Flemish - - painting : other |
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St John Altarpiece new21/WEYDEN, Rogier van der-686559.jpg ID de tableau:: 63871
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1455-60 Oil on oak panel Staatliche Museen, Berlin The body of the executed man is part of the foreground group, and the executioner can set his sword against John's right shoulder, shown in a flat plane. At the same time, however, two mourners who belong to the background are placed directly above the cellar stairs where the dead man is lying, and a figure diminished to about one-third of the size of the foreground figures appears to be standing only a little farther back from them.Artist:WEYDEN, Rogier van der Title: St John Altarpiece (detail) Painted in 1401-1450 , Flemish - - painting : religious |
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St John Altarpiece new21/WEYDEN, Rogier van der-548855.jpg ID de tableau:: 63872
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1455-60 Oil on oak panel Staatliche Museen, Berlin As a lascivious worldly beauty, Salome wears a magnificent dress in the fashion of French princesses, with exotic decorative items including the pointed head-dress. The background shows the scene of the banquet in which Salome's mother, Herodias, stabs the decapitated head of the Baptist in her hatred for him.Artist:WEYDEN, Rogier van der Title: St John Altarpiece (detail) Painted in 1401-1450 , Flemish - - painting : religious |
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St Luke Drawing the Portrait of the Madonna new21/WEYDEN, Rogier van der-638558.jpg ID de tableau:: 63873
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1450 Oil on oak panel, 138 x 110 cm Alte Pinakothek, Munich This painting is closely based on Jan van Eyck's Madonna with Chancellor Rolin. Van der Weyden uses the same cubic space as Van Eyck, with an opening supported by two columns through which the main scene opens out onto a landscape in the background. There exist three other examples of this composition, identical apart from a few details, of which the one in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, since its restoration in 1932-33, is regarded by most art historians as the original (other examples in St Petersburg, Hermitage, and Bruges, Groeningemuseum).Artist:WEYDEN, Rogier van der Title: St Luke Drawing the Portrait of the Madonna Painted in 1401-1450 , Flemish - - painting : religious |
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