The Master of Flemalle and Rogier van der Weyden

Robert Campin, also known as the Master of Flemalle (c. 1375-1444), and his pupil Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399-1464) were two of Europe's greatest Northern Renaissance painters, though art history has been slow to catch up with them. Along with Jan and Hubert van Eyck, Campin and van der Weyden are now considered synonymous with the development of Old Netherlandish painting, having given oil painting some of its earliest virtuoso works. Campin's work marks the shift from manuscript painting to Realist painting, both in its subject matter and in the artist's use of oils to mold signature shapes such as brocades or the teardrops on the cheek of a grieving Madonna. His "Merode Altarpiece" (c. 1425) at The Cloisters in New York, is perhaps Campin's best known painting--but both his and van der Weyden's reputations have fluctuated, as the work of each has been attributed to the other. (When van der Weyden died in 1464 he was the most famous painter in Europe, but today not one painting is decisively attributed to him.) This audio CD, narrated by J.J. Gordon, introduces more than 40 masterpieces by these two brilliant artists, detailing the circumstances that surround them.