Portrait of a Lady (van der Weyden)

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Portrait of a Lady (Rogier van der Weyden)
Portrait of a lady
Rogier van der Weyden , ca.1460
Oil on wooden panel
34 × 25.5 cm
National Gallery of Art , Washington, DC

Portrait of a Lady is a small oil-on-wood panel painting painted by the Dutch painter Rogier van der Weyden around 1460 . The composition is characterized by two elements: on the one hand, the geometric shapes that form the lines of the veil and the contours of the woman's neck, face and arms; on the other hand by the incident light that illuminates her face and headdress. The strong contrast between light and dark emphasizes the almost unnatural beauty and Gothic elegance of the model.

background

Towards the end of his life, Rogier van der Weyden was mainly occupied with commissions for portraiture . He was highly regarded by later generations of painters for his profound portrayals of people. In this work, the humility and modest demeanor of the woman are conveyed through her delicate appearance, her lowered gaze and her tightly clasped hands. It is slim and corresponds to the Gothic ideal of elongated body features. This can be seen in her narrow shoulders, her hair pulled back strictly, her high forehead and the elaborate frame that forms her headdress. It is the only known portrait of a woman by van der Weyden that has been recognized as an autograph work by the artist. But the name of the model is not documented and the painter gave the work no title.

Although van der Weyden did not adhere to the conventions of idealization, he generally tried to flatter his models. He presented his models in very fashionable clothing and often with rounded - almost modeled - facial features, some of which deviated from a natural representation. He adapted his own aesthetic to this, which is why his portraits of women often look strikingly similar.

The painting has been in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC since it was donated in 1937 and is number 34 in the de Vos catalog raisonné belonging to the artist. It has been described as "famous among all women portraits of all schools".

composition

The woman, who is likely in her late teens or early twenties, is shown half-length and three-quarters profile. The two-dimensional, blue-green background is flat and lacks the level of detail that is often found in Rogier van der Weyden's religious works. Like his contemporary Jan van Eyck (approx. 1395 - 1441) he used dark surfaces when painting portraits in order to draw attention to the model. Hans Memling (approx. 1435–1494), a pupil of Rogier van der Weyden, was the first Dutch artist to stage a portrait in the open air or in front of a landscape. In this work, the flat surround enables the viewer to devote himself to the woman's face and quiet self-control. Rogier van der Weyden reduces his focus to four basic elements: the headdress, the dress, the face and the hands of the woman. The background has darkened over time; probably the angles formed by the hennin and the model's dress used to be a lot more distinctive.

see caption and text
Petrus Christ (c. 1410 / 1420–1475 / 1476), portrait of a benefactress c. 1455, National Gallery of Art , Washington. Christ's work had a great influence on Rogier van der Weyden, which is evident in the expression and color.

The woman wears an elegant, low-cut black dress with dark fur stripes on her neck and wrists. Her clothes correspond to the then fashionable Burgundian style, which emphasizes the aesthetics of size and slimness of the Gothic ideal. A bright red buckle holds the dress together under her chest. The yellow-brown hennin is covered by a large, transparent veil that spreads over her shoulders and reaches up to her upper arms. The attention to detail in the structure of the clothing - the careful decoration of the needles that hold the veil - is characteristic of Rogier van der Weyden.

The woman's veil forms the shape of a diamond, which is balanced by the opposite movement of a thin undershirt. She is shown slightly from the side, but her posture is centered by her crossed arms, neckline and veil. The woman's head is subtly illuminated, which is why her skin does not have strong tonal contrasts. Her face is long and thin and her eyebrows, eyelids and hairline are plucked to create a high forehead, in keeping with the fashion of the time. Her hair is strictly pinned back at the edge of the bonnet that sits over her ear. The high headdress and the strictly set back hair emphasize her long face and give it a modeled appearance.

According to the art historian Norbert Schneider, the woman's left ear sits unnaturally high and far back and is therefore parallel to her eyes instead of her nose. This positioning is probably an artistic stylistic device that serves to continue the movement of the diagonal line of the right inner wing of her veil. In the 15th century, veils were usually worn out of modesty to hide physical sensuality. In this work, however, the veil does the opposite; the woman's face is framed by the headdress and thus draws attention to her beauty.

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Detail from Washington portrait showing tightly clasped hands and red belt

The woman's hands are tightly folded, as if in prayer, and positioned low in the picture, giving the impression that they are resting on the frame. They are compressed as much as possible into a small area of ​​the image; Rogier van der Weyden probably wanted to prevent them from forming a light surface that could distract from the representation of the head. Her slender fingers are reproduced in great detail. Rogier van der Weyden often referred to the social position of the model by depicting the face or hands. The sleeve of her dress extends beyond the wrist. The image of her fingers folded over each other forms the most detailed part of the painting and reflects the pyramidal upper part of the picture.

Her gaze is lowered and, in contrast to her extravagant clothing, expresses modesty. Rogier van der Weyden achieved the piety in her appearance through typical motifs. With the help of certain shades and a distinctive finish, your eyes and nose appear longer and your lower lip fuller. Some vertical lines are emphasized around these features. Her pupils are dilated and her eyebrows are slightly raised. In addition, her facial contours are highlighted in a somewhat unnatural and abstract way. In this way, they evade the spatial restrictions customary in the 15th century when depicting people. Art historian Erwin Panofsky describes this method as follows: "Rogier focused on certain significant features - important from both a physiognomic and psychological point of view - which he expressed mainly through lines." It has been suggested that her high forehead and full mouth were on one indicate both intellectual and ascetic as well as a passionate nature. They stand for "an unresolved conflict in their personality". Panofsky speaks of a "simmering excitability".

Although the model is not known, some art historians have speculated about her identity. At the beginning of the 20th century, the writer Wilhelm Stein suggested that, because of the similar facial features, it was Marie de Valengin, the illegitimate daughter of Philip III. of Burgundy . However, this is a controversial claim shared by few. With their hands resting on the lower frame of the picture, art historians generally agree that this is an independent portrait, not a religious one. It is possible that it was intended as a counterpart to a painting by her husband, but no other portrait has been suggested as a possible counterpart.

Break with the concept of idealization

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Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady , c. 1460. National Gallery , London. This painting is similar, but far less detailed. It comes from the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden and could have been made in 1466, and therefore quite late.

In the field of portrait painting, Rogier van der Weyden belonged to the same tradition as his contemporaries Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin . In the 15th century, these three artists belonged to the first generation of painters of the “Northern Renaissance” as well as to the first Northern Europeans to portray members of the middle and upper classes in a naturalistic way and not in a medieval-Christian idealized form. In earlier Dutch art, the profile view was the predominant form of representation for members of the nobility and clergy who were worthy of portraiture. In works such as Man with a Red Turban (1433), Jan van Eyck broke with this tradition and created a three-quarter profile of the face, which became the standard in Dutch art. Here Rogier van der Weyden uses the same type of profile, which enables him to better represent the head shape and facial features of the model. She is shown at half length, which allows the artist to depict her hands crossed at the waist.

Despite this newfound freedom, Rogier van der Weyden's portraits of women show remarkable conceptual and structural similarities both to each other and to Campin's portraits of women. Most of them depict three-quarter faces and half-length bodies. Their models usually set them in front of a dark, monochrome and inconspicuous background. On the one hand, the portraits are famous for their expressive pathos; on the other hand, the facial features of women are very similar. This suggests that, despite his departure from tradition, Rogier van der Weyden wanted to flatter his models, thereby reflecting contemporary ideals of beauty. Most of Rogier van der Weyden's portraits were commissioned by aristocrats; only five of his works (including a portrait of a lady ) were not donor pictures . It is known that Rogier van der Weyden, in his portrait of Philip de Croÿ (c. 1460), flattered the young Flemish nobleman by hiding his broad nose and protruding jaw in it. The art historian Norbert Schneider describes this tendency in relation to the Washington portrait as follows: "While van Eyck shows nature 'roughly', Rogier improves physical reality and civilizes and refines both nature and human form with the help of his brush . " The high quality of the painting becomes clear when you compare it to a very similar portrait in the National Gallery that was created in Rogier van Weyden's workshop. The London model has softer and rounder features; it is younger and shows less individual characterization than the model from around 1460. Even in the area of ​​painting technique, the London work lacks subtlety and delicacy. Nonetheless, the facial expression and dress of the two models are similar.

Van der Weyden was more concerned with the aesthetics and emotional response his pictures evoked than with the specific portraits. Art historian and curator Lorne Campbell believes the popularity of the portraits is due more to the "elegant simplicity of the pattern [created by the model]" than to the grace of their depiction. Although Rogier van der Weyden did not stay in the traditional realm of idealization, he created his own aesthetic, which he expressed in his portraits and religious paintings. Part of this aesthetic is the mood of melancholy devotion, which is the predominant quality in all of his portraits. His depictions may be more natural than those of earlier generations of artists, but his individualistic approach to depicting the piety of his models often leads to a digression from the rules of magnitude.

John Walker, former director of the National Gallery of Art, described the subject as "outré", but believed that the model was "strangely beautiful" despite its peculiar features. By the time the work was completed, Rogier van der Weyden had even surpassed Jan van Eyck in popularity. This painting shows the typical ascetic spirituality of Rogier van der Weyden, for which he is famous and with which he surpasses Jan van Eyck's sensuality.

Condition and provenance

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This 1937 X-ray shows that the woman's waist was originally narrower and her chest was larger.

Although Rogier van der Weyden did not give the work a title and the name of the model is not documented in any early inventories, the picture is located in Rogier van der Weyden's later career due to the style of clothing. The dating to around 1460 is based on the highly fashionable dress and the presumed chronological position of the work in the evolution of Rogier van der Weyden's painting style. However, it is possible that it was created even later (Rogier van der Weyden died in 1464).

Portrait of a Lady is painted on a single oak panel with vertical grain and has an unpainted border on both sides. The board was primed with gesso and the figure was painted on it in black and white. Then pigmented oil glazes were added, which enabled subtle, see-through gradations of color. Infrared radiation shows that Rogier van der Weyden did not sketch the work on the blackboard before he started painting and there is no evidence of signing . The infrared image reveals that the lady was originally shown slimmer, but this was changed in the course of the work process; a thick layer of paint lies under the belt, proving that the original waistline has been expanded. These changes are also visible on x-rays . It is in relatively good condition as it has been cleaned several times, most recently in 1980. Some paint has been lost on the veil, headdress and sleeve and the ear has suffered abrasion.

The provenance of the painting is unclear and there are doubts as to which image some early inventories refer to. In the 19th century it was owned by a Prince of Anhalt, probably Leopold III. Friedrich Franz von Wörlitz , near Dessau . Then it probably came to Leopold Friedrich . In 1902 the painting was loaned for exhibition in the Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien in the Hôtel du Gouvernement Provincial, Bruges . It was owned by a Prince of Anhalt until he sold it to the Duveen Brothers art dealer in 1926 . They sold it to Andrew W. Mellon in the same year . The following year, as was loaned to the Royal Academy of Arts , London, for an exhibition on six centuries of Flemish and Belgian art . In 1932, Mellon bequeathed the work to his Foundation for Education and Charity, which donated it to the National Gallery of Art in 1937 , where it is part of the permanent exhibition.

gallery

  • Robert Campin (c. 1375–1444), Portrait of a Woman , 1430–1435, National Gallery , London. Rogier van der Weyden's style is based on that of the old master.

  • Rogier van der Weyden, Altar of the Seven Sacraments (Rogier van der Weyden) , detail, 1445–1450, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten , Antwerp . This formal group picture shows women of high standing, dressed according to the fashion of the time. This is characterized by high - and in this case split - hennins and V-cutouts.

  • Petrus Christus ' Portrait of a Young Lady , after 1460, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin . There are similarities in the modeled features and the facial expression of the model.

  • Hans Memling , Portrait of an Old Woman circa 1470. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston , Texas. Memling was a successor to Rogier van der Weyden and used the distortion of natural representation to express ideals of beauty.

  • A Young Lady of Fashion is attributed to the Florentine painter and mathematician Paolo Uccello and is dated to the early 1460s. The young lady has plucked her hairline to increase the length and therefore the elegance of her forehead. A lock of hair falls back in a ponytail. A close-fitting hood covers her ears, which is likely due to the idea that the Virgin Mary became pregnant through her ear.

literature

  • Brown, David Alan (2003). Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de 'Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-11456-9 .
  • Lorne Campbell, S. Foister, A. Roy: Early Northern European Painting. In: National Gallery Technical Bulletin. Volume 18, 1997.
  • Lorne Campbell: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools. National Gallery Publications, London 1998, ISBN 1-85709-171-X .
  • Lorne Campbell: Van der Weyden. Chaucer Press, London 2004, ISBN 1-904449-24-7 .
  • Lorne Campbell, Jan Van der Stock (Ed.): Rogier van der Weyden: 1400–1464. Master of Passions. Davidsfonds, Leuven 2009, ISBN 978-90-8526-105-6 .
  • Dirk De Vos: Rogier van der Weyden: The Complete Works. Harry N Abrams, 2000, ISBN 0-8109-6390-6 .
  • Max J. Friedländer: Landscape, Portrait, Still-Life: Their Origin and Development. Schocken Books, New York 1963.
  • Christa Grössinger: Picturing women in late Medieval and Renaissance art. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1997, ISBN 0-7190-4109-0 .
  • John Oliver Hand, Martha Wolff: Early Netherlandish Painting. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1986, ISBN 0-521-34016-0 .
  • Stephan Kemperdick: The Early Portrait, from the Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Prestel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3598-7 .
  • Fred S. Kleiner: Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont 2009, ISBN 0-495-57364-7 .
  • Isabel Stevenson Monro, Kate M. Monro: Index to Reproductions of European Paintings: A Guide to Pictures in More Than Three Hundred Books. HW Wilson, New York 1956.
  • Erwin Panofsky: Early Netherlandish Painting: v. 1. Westview Press, 1971 (new edition), ISBN 978-0-06-430002-5 .
  • Margaret Scott: The History of Dress: Late Gothic Europe, 1400-1500. Humanities Press, London 1980, ISBN 0-391-02148-6 .
  • Norbert Schneider: The Art of the Portrait: Masterpieces of European Portrait-Painting, 1420-1670. Taschen GmbH, 2002, ISBN 3-8228-1995-6 .
  • Jeffrey Smith: The Northern Renaissance. Phaidon, London 2004, ISBN 0-7148-3867-5 .
  • Joseph Van Der Elst: The Last Flowering of the Middle Ages. Kessinger Publishing, Montana 1944.
  • John Walker: National Gallery of Art, Washington. Harry N. Abrams, Inc, New York 1975, ISBN 0-8109-0336-9 .
  • Jean Wilson: Painting in Bruges at the Close of the Middle Ages: Studies in Society and Visual Culture. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-271-01653-1 .

Notes and individual references

Remarks

  1. ↑ Rogier van der Weyden often worked on behalf of members of the Burgundian court.
  2. ↑ A plucked hairline was also fashionable in Renaissance Italy at the time.
  3. ↑ Philip the Good commissioned a portrait from Rogier van der Weyden around 1450.
  4. ↑ Rogier van der Weyden certainly knew van Eyck's work, but it is not known whether the two ever met.
  5. ↑ He was in training at Campin in 1426.
  6. ↑ Rogier van der Weydens and Robert Campins portraits of women are so similar that they have sometimes been attributed to the wrong person.
  7. ↑ At the time, it was common practice to initiate marriage connections through portraits.
  8. ↑ Portraits in the Anhalt Collection were often poorly documented in early inventories.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Oliver Hand, Martha Wolff: Early Netherlandish Painting. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1986, ISBN 0-521-34016-0 , p. 242.
  2. ↑ Fred S. Kleiner: Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont 2009, ISBN 0-495-57364-7 , p. 407.
  3. ↑ Christa Grössinger: Picturing women in late Medieval and Renaissance art. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1997, ISBN 0-7190-4109-0 , p. 60.
  4. ↑ Joseph Van Der Elst: The Last Flowering of the Middle Ages. Kessinger Publishing, Montana 1944, p. 76.
  5. ^ Max J. Friedländer: Landscape, Portrait, Still-Life: Their Origin and Development. Schocken Books, New York 1963, p. 37.
  6. ^ Stephan Kemperdick: The Early Portrait, from the Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Prestel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3598-7 , p. 24.
  7. ^ Stephan Kemperdick: The Early Portrait, from the Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Prestel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3598-7 , p. 23.
  8. ↑ Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460.
  9. ↑ Margaret Scott: Dress and Reality in Rogier Van der Weyden In: Campbell and Van der Stock, p. 140.
  10. ^ Norbert Schneider: The Art of the Portrait: Masterpieces of European Portrait-Painting, 1420-1670. Taschen GmbH, 2002, ISBN 3-8228-1995-6 , p. 40.
  11. ^ John Oliver Hand, Martha Wolff: Early Netherlandish Painting. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1986, ISBN 0-521-34016-0 , p. 244.
  12. ^ Campbell, p. 15.
  13. ^ Stephan Kemperdick: The Early Portrait, from the Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Prestel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3598-7 , p. 22.
  14. ^ A b c John Walker: National Gallery of Art, Washington. Harry N. Abrams, Inc, New York 1975, ISBN 0-8109-0336-9 , p. 126.
  15. ^ Erwin Panofsky: Early Netherlandish Painting: v. 1. Westview Press, 1971 (new edition), ISBN 978-0-06-430002-5 , p. 292: “In the superficially similar but considerably later Portrait of a Young Lady in the National Gallery of Washington, the hands are analogously placed but the intertwisted fingers reveal a smouldering excitability which, even more severely repressed, lives in her veiled, downcast eyes and full, sensuous lips. "
  16. ↑ Isabel Stevenson Monro, Kate M. Monro: Index to Reproductions of European Paintings: A Guide to Pictures in More Than Three Hundred Books. HW Wilson, New York 1956, p. 620.
  17. ↑ Portrait of a Lady.
  18. ↑ Jeffrey Smith: The Northern Renaissance. Phaidon, London 2004, ISBN 0-7148-3867-5 , pp. 95-96.
  19. ↑ Jeffrey Smith: The Northern Renaissance. Phaidon, London 2004, ISBN 0-7148-3867-5 , p. 96.
  20. ↑ Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De 'Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women.
  21. ^ Brown, David Alan (2003). Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de 'Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-11456-9 , p. 136.
  22. ↑ Rogier van der Weyden.
  23. ↑ Campbell, Jan.
  24. ↑ See John Oliver Hand, Martha Wolff: Early Netherlandish Painting. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1986, ISBN 0-521-34016-0 , p. 244 for a comparison
  25. ↑ Campbell, Jan.
  26. ↑ Campbell, 28
  27. ^ Max J. Friedländer: Landscape, Portrait, Still-Life: Their Origin and Development. Schocken Books, New York 1963, p. 268.
  28. ↑ cf. Fred S. Kleiner: Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont 2009, ISBN 0-495-57364-7 .
  29. ^ Campbell, 102
  30. ^ Conservation Notes.
  31. ^ Exhibition History.
  32. ↑ Meryle Secrest:
  33. ↑ Provenance: Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460.
  34. ^ Campbell, 16-19
  35. ^ Stephan Kemperdick: The Early Portrait, from the Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Prestel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3598-7 , p. 23.
  36. ↑ Campbell, Jan.
  37. ^ Brown, David Alan (2003). Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de 'Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-11456-9 , pp. 67, 112 ff.