Rogier van der Weyden

Rogier van der Weyden, initially Roger de la Pasture, 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, Burgundian nobility, and foreign aristocrats. 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 200 years that followed; today he is known, with Robert Campin and Van Eyck, as the third of the three great Early Netherlandish artists, and widely as the most influential Northern painter of the 15th century.