Roger van der Weyden his known for his Flemish painting style and he was active during the 15th century. He was involved in the Northern Renaissance and was active in places such as Brussels, Florence, and Ferrara. He followed the footsteps of two great painters, Robert Campin, and Jan Van Eyck who acted as his role models at the time. However, what made his paintings unique and different is the use of color in both the outside and the interior of the figures. He based his ideas on altarpieces and biblical subjects (De Loo, 1923). When creating altarpieces image or rather an art, he was ranked high and as being among the renowned artist of all the artists in the Northern Renaissance. Together with the likes of Robert Campin and Hugo van der Goes and the rest of the known artist of that period, he was able to create great renaissance paintings featured in Western Europe and hence was named as one of the greatest and most influential artist in the Netherlandish Renaissance.
One of the pieces by Weyden that was greatly influenced by Robert Campin is the painting known as “Descent from the Cross” and was created in 1435 to 1440. The picture was famous because of its use of sculpted figures together with strong primary colors; those are blues, whites, and reds. Also, the originality of the painting added to its fame. The artist also created the image in such a way that it portrayed a great extent of realism with the facial features showing many emotions, more specifically, the Virgin Mary's face. The painting had influence and many impacts on the biblical arts and other European movements that were involved with painting, for instance, the School of painting of Cologne. He created more masterpieces that religious-related and some of them include; the seven sacraments altarpiece, the lamentation before the tomb, the adoration of the Magi and many more.
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Weyden's artwork from the early years but still survives today is the painting of the Virgin and Child and St Catherine in a Landscape. The works depict more of a relationship and association with Robert Campin's works than it is with Jan van Eyck's works. This is shown in the way the women faces look and how they handle the drapery as well. However, another early work shows a similar combination of influence, and that is the Louvre Annunciation artwork. In several ways, the work seems to be a critique of Robert Campin’s Merode Altarpiece as it eliminates most errors such as the glaring perspectival errors from this art. In the Seven sacrament altarpiece painting however, he shows the continued influence of Jan van Eyck in his works. One of Jan's works, Madonna in the church has specific features Weyden uses. He places large scale figures against a vista down the church.
One of the paintings of Weyden that relate to the Houston painting “Virgin and Child,” is the Descent from the cross. In the painting “Virgin and Child,” Mary is shown seated in a location like a sculpture but projecting from the church wall. Above her, a small angel is holding a crown over her head. The crown depicts a grasp of realism in this painting. With it, the artist attaches heartfelt feelings in both Mary and the child in the art. The virgin in the painting is looking down, and her hands hold the son to signify protection. The child is relaxing and not worried about anything to show the satisfaction he gets from the protection of a mother, the virgin. Descent from the Cross is also full of emotions. The artist in this painting has determination to make the viewer’s share in the grief and agony experienced by those men and women who gathered around and witnessed the faded body of Christ. The painting shows the lifeless body being lowered slowly from the cross. The figures surrounding Christ are all overcrowded in an enclosed space that is about to imprison them. The figure of Magdalene wearing a creases dress is displayed to reinforce the emotional anguish she is suffering. Both the paintings pass a message of emotions depending on the situation and time. Something about these two paintings that makes them similar is the use of primary color. Weyden makes his paintings colorful by making use of a lot of reds, blues and whites colors on them, and both the paintings have these three colors.
Weyden’s ability to express human emotions such as sadness, suffering, and many others using the highly expressive faces in his paintings figures is considered one of his most significant contributions to the 15th-century art. The pictures of the virgin and the child in the painting bring out the emotions of a strong bond between the two. The feelings of love, innocence, and purity are also evidenced by the tender embrace of the two while the child anchors against the virgin’s shoulder (De Simone, 2014). Also, the gaze given by the child is enough to tell how pure and innocent he was and Weyden inspires such emotions of love, purity, and innocence to the viewers of his work through this painting. Romano in his art as well passes the same message but not with the same intensity that Weyden does. In Romano painting, the child is standing on his own but barely held by the mother. Also, the child’s arm is around the mother’s neck to signify the vital role played by a mother in children’s life regardless of their age. The two paintings pass the message of love between mother and child but in a different way. In Weyden’s art, the fact that the mother holds the child with both hands and a tight shows the need for a mother to protect the child and to love them while in Romano’s painting, the child’s having his arm around the mothers neck shows the need of a child to be protected by the mother.
Body language and facial expression is also another element of truth and meaning in these two paintings. In Romano’s art, the virgin and the child hare a flow, as their bodies are moving in the same direction, allowing them to engage with each other. That’s a strong body language acting as a sign of a strong relationship between the child and the virgin, the motherly love the virgin to the child and the embrace of the child as evidence for its need for comfort and support from the mother (De Simone, 2014). However, the Weyden painting shows the same affection but in a different way. The painting is rigid, and the body languages are standstill evidencing little emotion. Their gaze directed down is depicting inferiority. The significant difference between the two body language is that the Weyden painting passes a message of human beings being beyond understanding, while Romano painting depicts them with more human nature.
Both the paintings show a mother relationship with the child through the close nature of the figures. In Weyden’s painting, the mother holds the baby with both hands, and her face is glaring down at the baby to show the extent of love and strong desire to take care of the baby and watch them as they grow up. When viewers look at this painting, they connect to it through their daily lives in their families. For couples, they will learn something from it because they go through the same with their children and for young adults, they learn the virtue of love when they connect with their siblings at home. The connection pointed out here is between close relatives, and mostly this happens to people who are family. In Romano’s painting, both the mother and the child are looking in the same direction, and this connects to the viewer’s way of life where the adults are supposed to direct young ones on where to go, what to do with their lives and what to choices to make. The child in the painting is doing what the mother is directing him to do, and therefore parents are supposed to be guardians of their children. Since the two artworks are centered on the religious ideas of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, they have some aspects of Christianity and spirituality in it. The topic of love which is more evident between Mary and son Jesus is an example of what is expected of everyone with religious beliefs. Moreover, the purity and innocence that the baby Jesus represents is also expected of those who follow Jesus and call themselves Christians. Such people are expected to be pure in hearts and strive to do good so that in the end times, their innocence and purity will make them inherit eternal life.
In art, the term realism, sometimes known as naturalism refers to the mid-nineteenth century art movement that was characterized by subjects that were painted from daily life naturally. However, the term also generally means artworks that are painted realistically but in a photographic way. The Weyden painting of virgin and child is evidence of the application of realism in 15th-century art. Instead of styling the image of the Virgin and the child majestic figures with power associated clothes and jewels all over to show the aspect of royalty and power, the images are however portrayed as humble figures of Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, with flesh and bones like humans and ordinary clothing to help the common people associate with it and the religious faith wrapped in its meaning (De Loo, 1923). The same applies to the Romano painting. Also, both the image made use of oil which is another factor that made naturalism possible in art. The oil helps in producing a wide range of colors, a blend of tone, and extraordinary detail.
Northern European painters unlike the Italians did not make a demi-god of a man but could prefer to paint as he was with a consciousness of mortality, clothed and not nude, with the world carefully and loyally depicted in intricate detail against the actual backgrounds, domestic or landscape. The northern paintings tend to be smaller, and intimate due to the absence of fresco cold and damp in northern dimes. Also, the painting used oil and was contrasted with the Italian pictures, which were larger and with sunnier harmonies. The arts of the north were small scale, intimate and private compared to the Italians. Moreover, the northern arts used oil while the Italians used egg tempera. The Weyden painting is small, is more intimate given the closeness of the mother and the child, and more private as it only shows two figures. The Romano painting, on the other hand, is an excellent portrayal of Italian art with broad figures. The painting itself is big, has three pictures in it and there is no element of intimacy in it. In terms of which one is more detailed, Weyden’s is more precise. The figures are drawn with the colors in their natural state. The Romano figures are larger, the colors are faded, and the idea of the son standing makes it even more doubtable.
In conclusion, the artwork takes time to develop, and it started long ago. Both Weyden and Romano managed to create the painting of Virgin and Child, and although the two paintings seem to be different, the artist passed more or less similar messages. The human emotions and connections are seen through the body language and facial expressions in the two paintings. Moreover, the religious theme is brought about in the sense that the two characters in the art are that of Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. Renaissance development in Northern Europe and Italy can be seen by the aspects of color, light, and shade applied in the two paintings. The Weyden painting, for instance, uses a simple background to show how simple the art tradition of northern Europe has been while Romano uses a light color in the background to make his painting more detail with the use of light and color as it has been the tradition of Italy art. By looking at the slight differences in respect to color, light, and shadow used in both paintings, one can tell which one is more detail and which one is not.
References
- Bomford, D., Roy, A., & Smith, A. (1986). The techniques of Dieric Bouts: Two paintings contrasted. National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 10, 39-57.
- De Loo, G. H. (1923). Diptychs by Rogier van der Weyden-I. The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, 43(245), 53-58.
- De Simone, G. (2014). Antoniazzo Romano. the burlington magazine, 156, 201.
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