Robert Campin (Master of Flémalle), documented in Tournai from 1406, died in 1444, Mérode Altarpiece, c. 1425-28.		The Limbourg Brothers, The Annunciation to the Virgin from the Très riches heures, c. 1413-1416.
Detail of the Central panel with the table	Majolica Vase, Florence, c. 1430.	Detail of the right panel of the Mérode Altarpiece: Joseph in the Carpenter Shop.
Jan Van Eyck, c. 1370/90-1441, "valet de chambre" of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, The Rolin Madonna, (Chancellor Nicholas Rolin), c. 1435.		Robert Campin, The Madonna of the Firescreen., c. 1430.
Detail of the Madonna of the Firescreen.		Details of the Rolin Madonna.
Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait (Giovanni Arnolfini, merchant from Lucca, and Giovanna Cenami), 1434.		Details from the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait.
Jan Van Eyck, Rolin Madonna, c. 1435.		Rogier van der Weyden, St. Luke Drawing the Virgin, c. 1435-40.
Rogier van der Weyden, Annunciation, Louvre, c. 1435

Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition, c. 1435. (for other Rogier images)

Oil painting- Although Jan Van Eyck is traditionally credited with the invention of oil painting, pigments mixed with drying oils (linseed, walnut, etc.) were used long before the fifteenth century for special purposes such as painting on stone or metal. Van Eyck, however, was among the first to use the medium for panel painting. With oils, which are far more flexible than the traditional tempera, artists could create illusionistic effects of extraordinary subtlety, richness, and luminosity. Oils permitted the smooth blending of colors, high saturation, the use of transparent glazes, almost infinite detail, and of the possibility of reworking the same area over and over again. Other capabilities of oil painting were realized in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when it was roughly applied to the canvas in opaque "scumbles" and thick "impastos."

Altarpiece: a painted or sculptured panel or shrine placed behind and above an altar. Fourteenth- and fifteenth century altarpieces are often very complicated, consisting of several panels or separate groups of sculpture. An altarpiece consisting of two panels is called a diptych; one with three panels is a triptych; when it has more than three panels it is called a "polyptych." Some altarpieces have a decorated base, or "predella," and have shutters or wings which can be opened.

For more images of the works of Robert Campin, Jan Van Eyck, and Rogier Van der Weyden see the following useful sites:

Early Netherlandish Painting

Robert Campin (Master of Flémalle):

Robert Campin, The Mérode Altarpiece.

WebMuseum: Flémalle, Master of (Robert Campin)

Mark Harden: Robert Campin

Jan Van Eyck:

Mark Harden: Jan Van Eyck

Carol Gerten Jackson: Jan van Eyck

WebMuseum: Jan Van Eyck

Rogier Van der Weyden:

Mark Harden: Rogier van der Weyden

WebMuseum: Rogier van der Weyden

Carol Gerten Jackson: Rogier van der Weyden

See also the following web pages I have developed for my Nothern Renaissance Art class: Robert Campin , Jan Van Eyck as Court Artist, Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, Works of Jan Van Eyck.

Maps

Compare and contrast these two works. Note the different social contexts in which the works were produced. Demonstrate how these have led to these different visualizations of this same subject matter.

Both of these works are major monuments of the "new" style developed in Flemish or Netherlandish art during the second quarter of the fifteenth century. Note the different social contexts in which the artists worked, and how these led to these different representations.

Jan Van Eyck, The Rolin Madonna, c. 1435.	Rogier van der Weyden, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, c. 1435-40.

Very evidently Rogier based the composition of his work on Van Eyck's Rolin Madonna, but at the same time we can see how he has established a very different point of view in his work. Articulate the different points of view the artists present in these works.

Jan Van Eyck, Madonna and Child and the Canon George van der Paele , c. 1437.