Rogier van der Weyden

Rogier van der Weyden was born around 1399 or 1400 and worked initially under the French version of his name, Roger de la Pasture. His altarpieces and portraits—marked by expressive pathos, naturalism, and an unusually broad palette where no tone repeated twice—made him wildly successful: commissions poured in from Philip the Good, Netherlandish nobility, and foreign aristocrats, and his paintings travelled to Italy and Spain. By the latter half of the 15th century he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity. Then taste shifted. His fame died in the 17th century, and by the mid-18th he was almo…