El Descendimiento The Descent from the Cross

Rogier van der Weyden: An In-Depth Study of His Oeuvre

Rogier van der Weyden, a pivotal figure in 15th-century Flemish art, presents numerous challenges to the art historian. As the finest disciple of Jan van Eyck and the master of Hans Memling, his work forms a crucial link between two great artists. This study delves into his principal works, from the 'Seven Sacraments' altarpiece in Antwerp to the triptychs in Berlin and Madrid, analyzing his two distinct manners, his use of color, and the profound, often elegiac poetry that distinguishes his art from the robust realism of the Van Eycks.

Alfred MichielsMay 31, 2026

While the biography of Rogier van der Weyden is fraught with obscurities that torment the historian, his works do not offer a bed of roses either. They raise embarrassing questions from which even the most stubborn reflection struggles to find an answer. We will describe his principal works, then we will address the difficult problems connected with them.

The Bridge Between Masters

Van der Weyden holds a dual interest for us; on one hand, he was the best disciple of Jan van Eyck, and on the other, he shaped the talent of Hans Memling. Vasari mentions an "Ausse" as a student of Rogier; Guichardin calls him "Hausse," and Baldinucci refers to him as "Ans di Brugia." In the collection of Margaret of Austria, a panel by our artist was admired, depicting the dead Savior in the arms of Our Lady, with wings by Master Hans. It is believed that the painter thus designated is Jan, or rather Hans, Memling, as he was known in the Low Countries.²³

Highly skilled himself, Rogier served to unite two great men; he transmitted to the draftsman-poet the luminous torch he had received from the tireless explorer. Consequently, one cannot study his productions with too much care.

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece

Belgium possesses a precious work by him, which we have mentioned but not yet described. It adorns the museum of Antwerp and represents the Seven Sacraments. A Gothic church unfolds within it, bright, brilliant, and harmonious; one's gaze wanders through the naves as if in a real building. The poetic sentiment that permeates it distances us from the Van Eycks. We no longer find their profound gravity here; there is no severe half-light, no melancholic expression.

Light pours in abundantly; the cathedral seems cheerful, gentle, and smiling. Neither the formidable maxims, nor the sorrowful thoughts, nor the austere wisdom of Christians can reign in this diaphanous air and under these radiant vaults. The organ should not unleash its tempests here like the voice of a wrathful God; only the singing of young girls, the sweet litanies of monasteries, rise towards the Redeemer of mankind, like the fresh notes of the lark at sunrise. The tranquil and graceful genius of Memling already seems to vivify this monument.

Weyden, Rogier II van der or Roger

Flemish School, 16th century

Crédits photos

El Descendimiento The Descent from the Cross · Wikimedia Commons
Seven Sacraments Altarpiece · Wikimedia Commons
The Last Judgment Polyptych (1445–1450) by Rogier van der Weyden , Hôtel-Dieu of Beaune , France. · Wikimedia Commons
Rogier van der Weyden - Triptych- The Crucifixion - Google Art Project · Wikimedia Commons
Seven Sacraments Altarpiece (detail) · Wikimedia Commons
Bildnis einer jungen Frau mit Flügelhaube Portrait of a Young woman with a Winged Bonnet · Wikimedia Commons
Portrait of a Lady · Wikimedia Commons
The Magdalene Reading · Wikimedia Commons
Portrait of Francesco d'Este · Wikimedia Commons
Man in Prayer · The Met

Notes

¹ See the preceding issue. ↑

² "To this Roger succeeded in renown his disciple and apprentice Hausse, who made an excellent painting for the Portinari, which the Duke of Florence presently holds." Guichardin, p. 150. ↑

³ Ausse, instead of Ansse, must have originally been a printing error, which Guichardin reproduced; the workers will have put a u in place of an n, a very frequent mistake. ↑

⁴ It bears the number 534a in the Berlin museum. ↑

⁵ It bears the number 534b. ↑

⁶ In the archivolts of these three paintings, Van der Weyden mixed the biography of Christ with those of his mother and his forerunner. The twelve apostles adorn the jambs. The left wing and the central panel come from the collection of William II; the right wing was fortunately discovered and purchased in England. ↑

⁷ "In the year 1445, the said King Don Juan gave a most precious and devout altarpiece, having three stories, namely the Nativity of Jesus Christ, his Descent from the cross, which is otherwise called the fifth sorrow, and his Apparition to his mother after his resurrection. This altarpiece was painted by Master Rogel, a great and famous Fleming." ↑

⁸ *Descrizione odeporica della Spagna*, vol. I, p. 33. (Parma, 1793.) ↑

⁹ The council held in Antwerp during the year 1365 had prohibited it as too worldly. ↑

¹⁰ A mediocre and rather freely treated copy of this Adoration of the Magi bears the number 546 in the Berlin museum. ↑

¹¹ *Catalogue of Munich*, p. 134. Another copy that the sculptor Hans Gasser possessed in Vienna in 1860 was perhaps the one that adorned the apartment of Professor Hauber in Munich, where it was considered a painting by Friedrich Herlin, a presumed student of Van der Weyden. ↑

¹² *Le Messager des arts et des sciences*, year 1838, contains a very faithful engraving of this painting. ↑

¹³ Betty Paoli, *Wien's Gemalde-Gallerien*. ↑

¹⁴ See the second volume of my *Histoire de la peinture flamande*, p. 321 et seq. (new edition). ↑

¹⁵ *Kunstblatt*, year 1853, p. 452. ↑

¹⁶ Vol. II, pp. 330 and 331. ↑

¹⁷ *Mémoire sur les vêtements sacerdotaux du trésor impérial*, by the Chevalier Von Sacken. (*Bulletin de la commission centrale*, May 1858 issue.) ↑

¹⁸ Canon Farabulini speaks in almost the same terms of the tapestry preserved in Rome. See my second volume, p. 323 et seq. ↑

¹⁹ Folios 80, 85, 93, 97, etc. This volume was completed before 1450. ↑

²⁰ The first lines of this volume prove that the entire book had been commissioned by him: "Hereafter follows the third part of the noble princes of Hainault, extracted and translated from Latin into French from the books of Master Jacques de Guyse, at the command of my most redoubtable Lord Monseigneur Philippe, by the grace of God Duke of Burgundy, etc." ↑

²¹ Mr. Waagen had attributed the frontispiece of the first volume to Rogier van der Weyden by chance. Others having adopted his opinion, he proudly exclaims: "I was the first to recognize in this miniature the hand of Rogier van der Weyden!" A fine discovery, and one that truly authorizes a triumphant clamor! ↑

²² An important testimony proves that Rogier van der Weyden was considered, in the 15th century, to be the disciple of Jan van Eyck. It is a stanza from the rhymed chronicle of the Dukes of Urbino, a work written from 1485 to 1490 by Giovanni Santi, Raphael's father: "In Bruges were among the most praised / The great Johannes, the disciple Ruggero, / With so many endowed with high merit, / Whose art and supreme mastery / Of coloring were so excellent, / That they have often surpassed the truth." ↑

²³ "The indecent familiarities of the two sexes in baths and in similar gatherings, impure sources of license, had banished all modesty." Schiller, after Commines, *History of the Revolt of the Netherlands*. ↑

²⁴ Ratgeber, *Annalen der Niederländischen Malerei*, p. 165. ↑

²⁵ It is Mr. Alphonse Wauters, archivist of Brussels, who has unraveled with exemplary patience the biography of Rogier van der Weyden. While I was writing the second volume of my first edition, he had the extreme kindness to send me a memorandum in which he had grouped all the unpublished information that had come to his knowledge. His manuscript, which I still possess, proves his disinterested love of science, a very rare virtue in our days. Not having adopted all his conclusions and having encouraged him myself to print his work, he had it published in 1846 in the *Messager des sciences et des arts*, then published it as a brochure.

Ten years later, new discoveries led him to recast his study, which composed six articles in the Revue universelle des beaux-arts and provided him with the material for a second brochure. It is also Mr. Alphonse Wauters who wrote the monograph on Rogier van der Weyden in the Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles. The documents found in Tournai completed his research. Instead of citing him twenty times, I thought that a general declaration would be better and sufficient. For the paintings, tapestries, and miniatures, for everything concerning the two manners of the painter, I have spoken based on the works themselves and on my personal observations. ↑

The Bridge Between Masters

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece

Weyden, Rogier II van der or Roger

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