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This exhibition illustrates the originality and importance of Rogier van der Weyden, the most influential painter of the 15th century and the first to depict real people with real emotions. In bringing more than 100 masterpieces to M, Leuven’s new museum, it promises to be one of the cultural high points of 2009.
The beginning of the 15th century saw the emergence of a talented generation of painters in the Low Countries. With their exceptional eye for detail, they were an innovative force in Western painting. These artists went down in history as the Flemish Primitives.
Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck tower above the others. Van Eyck is an outstanding observer; Van der Weyden is the inimitable master of passion and subdued emotion. The pain and sorrow of Mary and John at the foot of the cross, Mary Magdalene’s deep concentration as she reads and the self-confident expression on the face of Charles the Bold are all still powerful enough images to move us today. Rogier van der Weyden grew up in Tournai. In 1435 he was appointed city painter of Brussels. In that prestigious office, he was close to the ducal court and the bourgeoisie. His clients included the Burgundian rulers and the Leuven Crossbow Guild. Van der Weyden is generally regarded as the most influential painter in the Southern Netherlands in the fifteenth century. Indeed, his artistic idiom was copied all over Europe.
Moreover, his work has lost none of its élan. The great German artist Albrecht Dürer praised Rogier in his diary and King Philip II went to great lengths to have The Descent from the Cross brought to Spain. And he succeeded. Made for Leuven’s Crossbow Guild, that sublime work now hangs in the Prado in Madrid. Though for technical reasons the masterpiece cannot be transported, it will be very much in evidence in the Rogier van der Weyden 1400 l 1464 - Master of Passions exhibition. Video artist Walter Verdin will bring The Descent from the Cross to life in the overture to the exhibition: his installation entitled THE SLIDING TIME.
Rogier van der Weyden 1400 l 1464 – Master of Passions is a unique opportunity to discover or rediscover the artist. His originality and influence are illustrated by means of more than 100 masterpieces on loan from major North-American and European collections. Some works return to Flanders for the first time in six centuries.
Rogier van der Weyden 1400 l 1464 – Master of Passions opens
M, Leuven’s new municipal museum. It is an
important exhibition in an important museum building. And one of
the cultural highlights of 2009.
