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brated Descent from the Cross for the church of "Our Lady without the Walls," there; a picture to which, at a later period, Mary of Hungary took so great a liking that she obtained it, on condition that she furnished a copy by Coxie. She sent it to Spain; but it met with a serious accident on the passage. The ship which contained it was threatened by a storm, and the picture and numerous valuables were thrown into the sea to ease her. The latter were irrecoverably lost; but the picture in its case was cast ashore, and saved in perfect preservation.1

Van der Weyden died at Brussels on the 16th of June, 1464, and was buried in the nave of the church of Ste. Gudule, where the body of his wife, who survived him many years, was also placed; a blue stone covering them both. His epitaph was as follows:

"Exanimis saxo recubas, ROGERE, sub isto,
Qui rerum formas pingere doctus eras;
Morte tua Bruxella dolet, quod in arte peritum,
Artificem similem non reperire timet.
Ars etiam moret tanto viduata magistro
Cui par pingendi, nullus in arte fuit.” 3

The following is the amusing mixture of Latin and Flemish, in which the joint resting-place of Roger and his wife is described in the register of burials of Ste. Gudule :

Magister Rogerus Van der Weyden, excellens pictor, cum uxore, liggen voor Ste. Câtelynen antaer onder eenen blauwen steen." 4

1 Van Mander.

2 Sweertius, ut sup., p. 284.

3 Ibid. 4 A. Wauters, Registre des sépultures. Messag. des Sc. hist., 1845, p. 145.

Yearly masses for the soul of Van der Weyden were founded by his wife. Part of a pension paid to her by the corporation of Brussels, as the widow of their "portraiteur" (20 gold peeters), she gave in 1477 to her relative Henrich Goffaert, Canon of Coudenberg, to spend in masses for the repose of her own and her husband's souls.'

After the death of Roger, the magistrates of Brussels decided that they should have no painter.2

Of his children no trace is left, but of his relatives some notices remain. One Goswyn Van der Weyden was free master of the Guild of St. Luke, at Antwerp, in 1503, and is described in the Liggere or record of that institution as having pupils: in 1504, Peerken Bovelandt and Simon Portugaloys; in 1507, Aerdt Van Vekene; in 1512, Metken Van Bergen and Frans Dreyselere; and in 1513, Inghels Inghelsoone. In 1514, he became dean or elder of the Guild, and had as pupil, in 1517, Hennen Simonz. In 1530, he was again appointed elder; and after that time his name no longer appears. This, probably, is the painter who executed eleven pictures in the Brussels Museum, given there to Roger, one of which, the tryptic representing the Circumcision, still bears upon it the words "Te Brusselle."

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This picture, according to the testimony of one Canon Heylen, quoted by the compilers of the Antwerp Catalogue,

1 A. Wauters, Cartulaire des Archives de l'abbaye de Coudenberg. Messag. des Sc. hist., 1845, p. 144.

2 A. Wauters, "Het roedt Statüt Boek." Records of Brussels. Messag. des Sc. hist., 1845, p. 131.

3 This inscription is on the edge of a piece of tapestry.

bore a large inscription, stating that it was painted by commission of the Abbot Streyten, for the church of Tongerloo, in 1535, at which time the artist was seventy years of age. The Antwerp Liggere also contains the name of one Roger Van der Weyden, who was chosen free master of the Guild in 1428.1

1 Antwerp Catalogue, p. 381.

CHAPTER IX.

THE WORKS OF VAN DER WEYDEN.

VAN DER WEYDEN was less indebted to his pictures for celebrity than to the influence which his religious conceptions exercised in distant schools, and the talents which he helped to form. His name, sustained on one side by his connexion with Van Eyck, and on the other by his arteducation of Memling, was pronounced with reverence as that of a master, although his works did not always support the high and well-earned character of Flemish art. Germany must own, however, that it took from him a portion of the elements which formed the school of Dürer; for Albert, though he learnt the art from Wohlgemuth, rather fashioned his style on that of Martin Schön,' a pupil of Van der Weyden, equally harmonious in the use of colour, and possessed of greater vigour of design. Were this the only triumph of Van der Weyden, his claims to notice would be ample; but he had others. He imparted his peculiar manner not only to the School of Bruges, through Memling, but to that of Louvain through Dierick Stuerbout. Cologne and its degenerate

1 Gaye, Carteggio inedito, ut sup., vol. iii. p. 1767. Vasari calls Martin Schön Martino d'Olanda. (Terza parte, ed., 1468.) Zani (Abate), in his Enciclopedia Metodica, gives the name of Martin in thirty different manners, as it is written in various authors.

painters of the fifteenth century came in for a share of it ; and the mixture of the three produced the bastard school, from which at last arose no less a man than Quintin Massys.

In the progress of years, during which he laboured indefatigably, Van der Weyden remained unchanged in manner, and true to a certain standard of excellence. When he visited Italy, and saw the masterpieces of the Tuscans, he returned unaltered, gaining, perhaps, a certain warmth of colour, but nothing more. His pictures on that account possess an uniformity of style which makes them easy of distinction; painting in a graceful and beautiful feeling, without possessing sufficient genius or power to express himself completely, Roger Van der Weyden was an artist of some qualities, marred by many imperfections. Harmonious in composition, finished in design, possessed of a fair knowledge of anatomy, and happy in the reproduction of the real in nature, he abounded in varied and good expression, and was as free from flattery as any painter of the Netherlands. But his conceptions were rarely noble; he failed to impart idealism, when he sought for it in the heads of the Virgin and Saviour. He exaggerated the idea of length, not only in the human figure, but in its component parts-the face, the body, limbs, hands, and feet; his knowledge of anatomy extending only so far as to enable him to render the form correctly, but not guarding him in its choice. Lacking majesty and elegance in the disposal of draperies, he generally spoilt the effect of his pictures by the hard outlines of the parts, and the angularity of the folds, at times even marring a good attitude

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