Robert Campin's The Mérode Altarpiece Analysis

Register to read the introduction… 1425-1428, oil on oak) in this painting. Of course, mainly because Rogier van der Weyden was a student of Robert Campin. But in my opinion, there is this very similar spirituality that is laid down on both paintings, and it was something that Robert could teach Rogier, it was something they both had (and possibly what established their connection.) In “The Mérode Altarpiece” “the smallest details are meticulously worked to reflect reality on a two-dimensional plane. Illusionistic effects are enhanced by the technical innovation of overlaying translucent oil pigments on aqueous opaque pigments”. Both of the paintings are containing rich gradations of light (we don’t see the light source, and it looks like as if the sun entered through a miraculously transparent wall so that we can observe the scene better.) We can clearly see town happenings scenes in both works, which displays a better perspective of the …show more content…
Extraordinary details, external exactness and idealistic structure… still figures in Jan van Eyck’s work absolutely lack emotional development. Pursuing perfection in details (in pretty much everything, including human faces, fabrics, etc.) he makes the figures “locked into one place”, not giving any room for change. There is also a lot of evident symbolism in Jan van Eyck’s work, which is not so easy to spot in Rogier van der Weyden’s painting.

Both of the works were painted using the “glazed oil” (layering and building on top of glazes) technique, which was Jan van Eyck’s primary medium. And there is no doubt that Rogier derived Jan’s ideas about the atmospheric use of light and shade; but still “Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife” differs from Rogier’s work in having that effect of chiaroscuro (a quality rather typical of the art of Jan van