Portrait of a Lady
Rogier van der Weyden
ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, c.1460. OIL ON OAK PANEL.
A portrait hides elegant geometry. Rogier van der Weyden was breaking from the traditional norms across multiple planes. He rejected the Western Renaissance’s attempt to create idealised figures, instead focusing on naturalistic depictions of his subjects. Their imperfection is their beauty, and he attempted to capture his sitters as he saw them, emphasising their features with dramatic lighting that creates an almost gothic realism. Yet if you un-focus your eyes, the work becomes a study of mathematics. The rectangles of her veil, the triangle of her neckline and sharp angles of her face turn the sitter into a figure of profound compositional simplicity. Van der Weyden’s portrait of an unnamed woman has become amongst the most famous and revered portraits in history. It’s power lies in it’s remarkable austerity, capturing a moment of emotion told in the lines and sight of a face.