Rogier van der Weyden or Roger
de la Pasture (1399 or 1400 – 18 June 1464)
He was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist
mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and
diptych portraits. He was highly successful in his lifetime; his
paintings were exported to Italy and Spain, and he received commissions
from, amongst others, Philip the Good, Netherlandish nobility, and
foreign princes. By the latter half of the 15th century, he had
eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity. However his fame lasted only until
the 17th century, and largely due to changing taste, he was almost
totally forgotten by the mid-18th century. His reputation was slowly
rebuilt during the following 200 years; today he is known, with Robert
Campin and van Eyck, as the third (by birth date) of the three great
Early Flemish artists (Vlaamse Primitieven or "Flemish Primitives"),
and widely as the most influential Northern painter of the 15th century.