Rogier Van Der Weyden - Attribution

Attribution

No single work can be attributed with certainty to van der Weyden on 15th century documentary evidence alone. However, Lorne Campbell has stated that three well-authenticated paintings are known, but each has been doubted or underestimated. The best documented is The Descent from the Cross in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Campbell points out that this painting's provenance can be traced in some detail from the 16th century. The Triptych of the Virgin or Miraflores altarpiece, now in Berlin, was given in 1445 to the Charterhouse of Miraflores near Burgos by John II of Castile; it was described in the deed of gift as the work of great and famous Flandresco Rogel. The 'Crucifixion', now in the Escorial Palace, was donated by Rogier to the Charterhouse of Scheut outside Brussels. In his catalogue raisonné of Van der Weyden's, the Belgian art historian Dirk de Vos agrees with Campbell about the authenticity of these three paintings.

Rogier's apprenticeship under Campin instilled a number of preoccupations, most noticeably his approach to feminine beauty, which was often expressed both through the elegant form of the model herself as well as her dress. Both painters positioned their models within strong diagonal lines, rendered either through headdress or folds of surrounding draperies or cloth. Both emphasised the vivacity of their model's character by contrasting them against dark flat backgrounds and throwing strong light from the near left hand side. Campbell compares Campin's Thief with Rogier's Prado Descent in their emotional depictions of anguish. In fact the resemblance was to such and extent -compare Campin's Portrait of a Woman's similarity to Rogier's Berlin portrait, that Campin's works were for a period attributed to Rogier's early career.