Comments on: Rogier van der Weyden

By: artzy

artzy — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:24:46 +0000

I’m a Dutchman, I grew up with this art. Do you know the brothers Van Limburg? Mediaeval painters who made “Les tres riches heures du Duc de Berry”. A wonderful book, a landmark in mediaeval art. Check it out.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:01:12 +0000

Nice on Charley.

I’ve always very much liked van der Weyden - his portraits always seem to like a meditation to me.

Maybe with the eye symmetry he was laying down the baton for Picasso to run with later?

By: Dan van Benthuysen

Dan van Benthuysen — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:25:50 +0000

I agree, insightful observation, Charley.

Sometimes it takes an artist rather than an art historian to see what the old master was wrestling with. And succinctly described: rendering what he knew versus rendering what he saw. By contrast van de Weyden has successfully rendered the foreshortening of the mouth as it wraps around the shape of the face, away from the viewer.

By: peacay

peacay — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:44:30 +0000

That’s a keen observation about the eye symmetry. I had been initially persuaded (when you drew attention to it) that the subject had some measure of strabismus (deviated eyes) but I agree those other images support your view that it’s a technique thing.