WEYDEN, ROGIER VAN DER [originally ROGER DE LA PASTURE] (c. Flemish painter, was born in Tournai, and there apprenticed in 1427 to Robert Campin. He became a gild master in 1432 and in 1435 removed to Brussels, where he was shortly after appointed town painter. His four historical works in the Hotel de Ville have perished, but three tapestries in the Bern museum are traditionally based on their designs. In 1449 Rogier went to Italy, visiting Rome, Ferrara (where he painted two pictures for Lionel d'Este) and Milan. The well-known little Madonna with four saints at Frankfort, was probably painted at Florence. The "Entombment" in the Uffizi was probably also painted in Italy. On returning (1450) he executed the triptych with half-length figures of Christ, the Virgin and saints in the Louvre; and for Pierre Bladelin the "Magi" triptych, now in the Berlin gallery. Van der Weyden's style is dry and severe as compared with the painting of the Van Eycks, his colour is less rich than theirs, and he lacks their sense of atmosphere. On the other hand, he cared more for dramatic expression. particu larly of a tragic kind, and his pictures have a deeply religious in tention. Comparatively few works are attributed with certainty to this painter; early works are : "The Descent from the Cross" in the Chapter House of the Escorial ; the John the Baptist three panel altar-piece in the Berlin Museum; the three-panel altar piece of the Virgin, two panels of which are in Granada Cathedral and the third in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ; the "Crucifixion" at the Vienna gallery; that in the Johnson collection, Philadelphia. The "Seven Sacraments" altar-piece at Antwerp is
almost certainly his, likewise the triptych of the Beaune hospital.
Notable portraits are : Lionello d'Este in the Friedman collection, New York and Charles the Bold in the Berlin Museum. Among his later works are "The Annunciation" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the triptych with the "Adoration of the Kings," the "Annunciation" and the "Presentation" in the Munich Pinakothek. Van der Weyden attracted many followers and his influence was widespread. It is evident in the work of Dierich Bouts, Memline and Martin Schongauer. He died at Brussels on June 16, 1464 and was buried in the church of St. Gudule.
See Sir Martin Conway, The Van Eycks and their Followers (1921) ; M. Friedlander, Roger van der Weyden, Die alt nieder ldndische Malerei (1925).