CAMPIN, ROBERT (1375-1444), a painter of the School of Tournai, formerly known as the Maitre de Merode and the Maitre de Flemalle. Campin's name appears in the records of Tournai between 1406 and 1444. It is there stated that he was en trusted with decorative work by the town council. Rogier van der Weyden and Jacques Daret are mentioned as entering his studio as pupils in 1427, though Rogier at that time must have been some 27 years old. Campin died on April 26, Most of the pictures now ascribed to this master were previously thought to be the early work of Rogier van der Weyden ; and Campin's work has only recently been disentangled from that of his famous pupil. His masterpiece is the triptych of the Annunciation in the collection of the countess of Merode at Westerloo-Tongerloo. Another im portant work is at the Staedel in Frankfurt, consisting of three panels of an altar-piece said to have come from the Abbey of Flemalle. The master of this picture was provisionally called Maitre de Flemalle until he was identified with Robert Campin by G. Hulin, who by documentary evidence also identified Cam pin's pupil, Jacques Daret, as the master of an altar-piece executed for the abbey of St. Vaast, panels of which have survived and are now at Berlin, in Paris and in the Pierpont Morgan collection. Other works which are generally ascribed to Campin are the "Virgin and Child in a Room," National gallery, London (Salting collection) ; a panel at Frankfurt, said to have formed part of a triptych representing the "Descent of the Cross"; a "Madonna" at the gallery of Aix in Provence ; and two heads of "Christ and the Virgin," in the Johnson collection at Philadelphia. To the mas ter's last period belong the wings of an altar-piece at Madrid dated 1438 and painted for Heinrich von Werl, a notable professor at Cologne, and a "Crucifixion" in the Berlin museum.
(I. A. R.)