Portrait of a Lady (van der Weyden)

The woman, who is probably in her late teens or early twenties, is shown half-length and in three-quarters profile, set against a two-dimensional interior background of deep blue-green. The background is flat and lacks the attention to detail common in van der Weyden's devotional works. Like his contemporary Jan van Eyck (c. 1395 – 1441), when working in portraiture, he used dark planes to focus attention on the sitter. It was not until Hans Memling (c. 1435–1494), a pupil of van der Weyden, that a Netherlandish artist set a portrait against an exterior or landscape. In this work the flat setting allows the viewer to settle on the woman's face and quiet self-possession.|alt=see caption and text The woman wears an elegant low-cut black dress with dark bands of fur at the neck and wrist. Her clothes are of the then-fashionable Burgundian style, which emphasises the tall and thin aesthetic of the Gothic ideal. Her dress is buckled by a bright red sash pulled in below her breasts. The buff-coloured hennin headdress is draped with a large transparent veil, which spills over her shoulders, reaching her upper arms. Van der Weyden's attention to the structure of the clothing—the careful detailing of the pins pushed into the veil to fix its position—is typical for the artist. The woman's veil forms a diamond shape, balanced by the inverse flow of a light vest worn beneath her dress. She is shown at a slight angle, but her pose is centred by the interlocked broad lines of arms, décolletage and veil. Her hair is tightly pinned back on the rim of the bonnet and rests above her ear. Her high headdress and severe hairline accentuate her elongated face, giving it a sculpted appearance. The woman's hands are crossed tightly as if in prayer, and positioned so low in the painting as to appear to be resting on the frame. They are rendered as tightly compressed into a small area of the picture; it is likely van der Weyden did not want them to result in an area of high tone that might distract from the description of her head. and outside the usual spatial constraints of 15th-century human representation. Her high forehead and full mouth have been seen as suggestive of a nature at once intellectual, ascetic, and passionate, symbolic of "an unresolved conflict in her personality". Panofsky refers to a "smouldering excitability". The sitter is unknown, although some art historians have speculated on her identity. On the grounds of similarity of facial features, writer Wilhelm Stein suggested in the early 20th century that she might be Marie de Valengin, the illegitimate daughter of Philip the Good of Burgundy. However, this is a contentious assertion and not widely held. Because her hands are shown as resting on the painting's lower frame, art historians generally accept that this was an independent portrait, rather than a devotional work. It is possible that it was intended as a pendant to a picture of the woman's husband, however no other portrait has been suggested as a likely companion. ==Break from idealisation==

, London. This similar painting is much less detailed and comes from his workshop. It may date from as late as 1466.|alt=see caption and text Van der Weyden worked in the same tradition of portraiture as contemporaries Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin. In the early to middle 15th century, these three artists were among the first generation of "Northern Renaissance" painters, and the first northern Europeans to portray members of the middle and upper classes naturalistically rather than in a medieval Christian idealised form. In earlier Netherlandish art the profile view was the dominant mode of representation for the nobles or clergy worthy of portraiture. In works such as Portrait of a Man in a Turban (1433), Jan van Eyck broke this tradition and used the three-quarter profile of the face which became the standard in Netherlandish art. Here, van der Weyden utilises the same profile, which better allows him to describe the shape of the head and facial features of the sitter. She is shown in half-length, which enables the artist to show her hands crossed at her waist. Despite this new freedom, van der Weyden's portraits of women are strikingly similar in concept and structure, both to each other Most are three-quarter face and half-length. They typically set their models in front of a dark background that is uniform and nondescript. While the portraits are noted for their expressive pathos, the facial features of the women strongly resemble one another. This indicates that although van der Weyden did not adhere to the tradition of idealised representation, he sought to please his sitters in a manner that reflected contemporary ideals of beauty. Most of van der Weyden's portraits were painted as commissions from the nobility; he painted only five (including Portrait of a Lady) that were not donor portraits. It is known that in his Portrait of Philip de Croÿ (c. 1460), van der Weyden complimented the young Flemish nobleman by concealing his large nose and undershot jaw. However, both share a similar expressions and dress. This aesthetic includes the mood of sorrowful devotion which forms the dominant tone in all his portraits. His figures may be more natural than those of earlier generations of artists; however, his individualistic approach to the depiction of his sitters' piety often leads to the abandonment of the rules of scale. John Walker, former director of the National Gallery of Art, referred to the subject as "outré", but believed that despite the awkwardness of her individual features, the model was nonetheless "strangely beautiful". By the time of the work's completion van der Weyden had eclipsed even van Eyck in popularity, and this painting is typical of the austere spirituality, over the latter's sensuality, for which van der Weyden is renowned. ==Condition and provenance==

shows that the woman's waist was at first narrower while her breasts were more pronounced. the style of her dress has been used to place the picture very late in van der Weyden's career. The c. 1460 dating is based on the high-fashion dress and the work's apparent chronological position in the evolution of van der Weyden's style. However, it is possible that it was executed even later (van der Weyden died in 1464). Infra-red reflectography reveals that van der Weyden did not sketch the work on the board before he began to paint, and there is no evidence of underdrawing. It shows that the lady was portrayed as more slender before changes were made as the work progressed; thickly applied background paint underlies some of the belt, demonstrating that the original silhouette was widened. These changes are also visible in x-ray images. The provenance of the painting is unclear, and there is doubt as to which painting is referred to in some early inventories. An Anhalt prince, likely Leopold Friedrich Franz (d. 1817) of Wörlitz, near Dessau, Germany, held it in the early 19th century, after which it is likely to have passed to Leopold Friedrich (d. 1871). The painting was loaned for exhibition in 1902, when it was shown at the Hôtel de Gouvernement Provincial, Bruges at the ''Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien''. It was held by a Duke of Anhalt until 1926 when he sold it to the art dealers Duveen Brothers. They in turn sold it that year to Andrew W. Mellon. It was loaned the following year to the Royal Academy of Arts, London, for an exhibition covering six centuries of Flemish and Belgian art. where it is on permanent display. ==Gallery==

File:Robert Campin 012.jpg|Robert Campin (c. 1375 – 1444), Portrait of a Young Woman, 1430–1435, National Gallery, London. Van der Weyden's style was founded on the work of the older master. File:Rogier van der Weyden- Seven Sacraments Altarpiece - Baptism, Confirmation, and Penance; detail, baptism.jpg|Rogier van der Weyden, Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, detail, 1445–1450, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. This formal, group work shows high-ranking women dressed in the contemporary fashion of high—here divided—hennin and v shaped neck-lines. File:Petrus Christus - Portrait of a Young Woman - Google Art Project.jpg|Petrus Christus' Portrait of a Young Girl, after 1460, Berlin State Museums. Similarity can be seen in the sculpted features and expression of the model. File:Paolo Ucello 001.jpg|A Young Lady of Fashion is attributed to the Florentine painter and mathematician Paolo Uccello and dates early 1460s. The young lady has plucked her hairline to increase the expanse, and thus elegance, of her forehead, and a lock of hair falls at the back in a ponytail. A tight-fitting cap covers her ears, a fashion possibly due to the prevalent belief of the time that the Virgin Mary conceived through the ear. ==See also==