WEYDEN, Rogier van der
(b. 1400, Tournai, d. 1464, Bruxelles)

Portrait Diptych of Jean de Gros (left wing)

1450s
Oil on oak panel, 36 x 27 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai

Of the Madonnas in the portrait diptychs, the most interesting is the one accompanying the Portrait of Jean de Gros (Art Institute, Chicago). She represents one of the early types of half length figures of the Virgin, which were used in many pictures by Rogier's successors, and copied with what are often only very slight deviations. The head of Mary in particular recurs almost unchanged in many pictures from Rogier's workshop or by his close colleagues, and has come down to us, for instance, in a drawing that was intended as the model for a painting (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

This panel of the Madonna formed a diptych with the portrait of Jean de Gros; both have the donor's motto and emblem on the back. The painting has suffered from its poor state of preservation, and may perhaps be by a workshop assistant.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.