Painter: Campin Robert. Part 1. In English y Español

Heinrich von Werl and St. John the Baptist. 1438. Oil on panel. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.


Madonna and Child before a Fireplace. Oil on panel. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.


Madonna by a Grassy Bank. c. 1425. Oil on wood. Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.


Mourning Trinity (Throne of God). Detail. Oil on panel. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Robert Campin (clic here Wiki) (c. 1375 – 26 April 1444), now usually identified with the artist known as the Master of Flémalle, is usually considered the first great master of Early Netherlandish painting. This had been a matter of controversy for decades; Campin's life is relatively well documented for the period,^[1] but no works in assessable condition could be securely connected with him, whilst a corpus of work had been attached to the unidentified "Master of Flémalle", named after the supposed origin of a work.^[2]

Life

Campin seems to have had relatives in Valenciennes. He first appears as settled in Tournai from the archives of 1405-6, as a free master of the guild of painters, and he bought citizenship in 1410, which suggests he was not born there. He eventually attained the office of dean of the guild, and wardenship of a church and other civic offices, and was running a large workshop. By 1432, however, he lost his civic positions because of scandals, and probably his role in political disturbances in the city. In 1429 he was found guilty of withholding evidence, and sentenced to go on a pilgrimage, and in 1432 was convicted of adultery and banished for a year. Margaret of Burgundy, wife of the Count of Holland and sister of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy intervened on his behalf, and this was reduced to a fine.^[3] The dated Werl Altarpiece (1438) shows he continued to work (the two outer wings are in the Prado; the main panel is lost).

Identity and style

Although heavily indebted to contemporary masters of manuscript illumination, Campin displayed greater powers of realistic observation than any other painter before him. He was one of the first artists to experiment with the use of oil-based colors, in lieu of egg-based tempera, to achieve the brilliance of color typical for this period. Campin used the new technique to convey strong, rounded characters by modelling light and shade in compositions of complex perspectives. It remains a matter of debate how far the complex symbolism that is generally accepted as existing in the work of Van Eyck also exists in the work of Campin.

Art historians have long been keen to trace the beginnings of the Northern Renaissance - with far less evidence to go on than in Italy. For a long time it was thought that Jan van Eyck was the first painter to make full use of the innovations apparent in manuscript illumination in panel painting.

By the end of the 19th century it became clear, however, that Van Eyck was the contemporary of an artist who painted a number of works, including the Mérode Altarpiece. Dated to about 1428, the altarpiece (now in the Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum) is permeated with loving attention to details and realism. Three other panels in a similar manner, supposed to come from the so-called abbey of Flémalle (it has been established that there was, in fact, no such abbey), are now in Frankfurt-am-Main. It was argued that these works belong to one "Master of Flémalle," whose identity at that time could not be established.

In the 20th century, several scholars suggested that the Master of Flémalle may be none other than Robert Campin, documented as a master painter in Tournai from 1406. The argument turns around a paper mentioning two pupils entering his studio in 1427 - Jacques Daret and Rogelet de la Pasture. The last named was probably the great Rogier van der Weyden (both names, one French, one Dutch mean "of the meadow" in English). A very well-documented altarpiece by Daret shows striking similarities with the works of Master of Flémalle, as do early works by Rogier. Therefore it is tempting to assume that both Daret and Rogier were disciples of the Master of Flémalle, i.e. Robert Campin. Another possibility, however, is that the Flémalle panels were painted by Rogier himself when he was still in his twenties. Some scholars have even attributed the famous Deposition in the Prado (Madrid) to Campin rather than Van der Weyden.

The tightest definition of the works from his own hand includes only the "Flémalle" panels, a Nativity at Dijon, a Crucified Thief (fragment of a Crucifixion) in Frankfurt, two portraits of a man and woman in London (of around 1430), and perhaps the Seilern Triptych. This, which excludes the best known works usually attributed to him, which are given to his workshop or followers, is the position taken by Lorne Campbell.^[4]

Mourning Trinity (Throne of God). Detail. Oil on panel. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Robert Campin (clic aqui Wiki) (1375 – 26 de abril de 1444) fue un pintor perteneciente al estilo flamenco de la pintura gótica. Se cree que nació y murió en la misma ciudad, Tournai (actual Bélgica). Se sabe poco de él.

Es generalmente considerado el primer gran maestro de la pintura flamenca. De hecho se le considera, con los hermanos Van Eyck, fundador de la escuela flamenca del Prerrenacimiento.

Aunque deudor de muchos de los maestros contemporáneos de iluminación de manuscritos, Campin mostró mayores poderes de observación realistas que ningún otro pintor antes que él. Fue uno de los primeros artistas que experimentaron con la reintroducción de colores aglutinados con aceite, (pintura al óleo), en lugar de pintar con témpera al huevo, para conseguir de esta manera la brillantez de colorido típica de este periodo. Campin usó la nueva técnica para presentar personajes rotundos y fuertes, modelando la luz y la sombra en composiciones de complejas perspectivas.

En sus primeras obras se aprecia la influencia de los hermanos Limbourg.

Probablemente fue el maestro de Van der Weyden en los años 1427 a 1432.

Contribuyó de forma decisiva a revolucionar la pintura de su tiempo, perfeccionando el uso del óleo con importantes consecuencias sobre el resultado final, con un colorido de gran brillantez y obteniendo extraordinarios efectos con las veladuras. Su realismo tendrá una gran influencia en los artistas de la generación siguiente, una de las más importantes de la pintura flamenca. Influido por la Escuela de Dijon, su estilo es sobrio, compuesto por imagenes cotidianas con una renovación iconográfica importante.

Pintó una serie de retratos (entre los cuales dos están en la National Gallery de Londres), con las figuras en tres cuartos, y las caras ocupando la parte fundamental del cuadro; se consideran los primeros en representar a la burguesía y personajes notables locales, testigos "de la irrupción del individuo" en el Renacimiento.

Los historiadores del arte han estado siempre ansiosos por encontrar el principio del renacimiento nórdico y atribuirlo a un artista en particular. Durante mucho tiempo se aceptó que Jan van Eyck fue el primer pintor que se apartó de las convenciones del arte gótico.

A finales del siglo XIX, sin embargo, quedó claro que van Eyck estuvo precedido por un artista que pintó el Retablo Mérode. Datado en torno a 1428, este retablo (hoy en Los Claustros del Metropolitan Museum de Nueva York) está imbuido de la amorosa atención al detalle y el espíritu del materialismo burgués. Otros paneles de estilo similar, que supuestamente provienen del Château de Flémalle, se exhiben hoy en Fráncfort del Meno. Se asumía que estas obras pertenecieron a un Maestro de Flémalle cuya identidad por aquel entonces no quedó establecida.

Ya en el siglo XX, los estudiosos han identificado a Robert Campin con el Maestro de Flémalle. Robert Campin estaba documentado como un pintor maestro en Tournai desde 1406. El argumento gira en torno a un documento que menciona a dos alumnos que entraron en su taller en 1427: Jacques Daret y Rogelet de la Pasture. El último de los mencionados era probablemente el gran Rogier van der Weyden. El único retablo documentado de Daret muestra marcadas similitudes con las obras del Maestro de Flémalle, lo mismo que las primeras obras de Rogier. Por lo tanto, es tentador asumir que tanto Daret como Rogier fueron discípulos del Maestro de Flémalle, esto es, Robert Campin. Otra posibilidad, sin embargo, es que los retablos de Flémalle estuvieran pintados por el propio Rogier en su etapa juvenil.