Portrait of a Lady (van der Weyden)
Portrait of a Lady 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.
Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 34 × 25.5 cm (13 × 10 in)
Petrus Christus (c. 1410/1420–1475/1476), Portrait of a Female Donor c. 1455, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Christus' work was highly influential on van der Weyden as can be seen in the expression and colouring.
Crop of the Washington portrait showing the woman's tightly crossed fingers and red belt
Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460. National Gallery, London. This similar painting is much less detailed and comes from his workshop. It may date from as late as 1466.
Rogier van der Weyden or 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 princes. 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 Flemish artists, and widely as the most influential Northern painter of the 15th century.
Rogier van der Weyden
Imaginative portrait by Cornelis Cort, 1572
The Descent from the Cross (c. 1435), oil on oak panel, 220 × 262 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid
Portrait of a Woman with a Winged Bonnet, c. 1440. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.