Rogier Van der Weyden and Stone Sculpture in Brussels

By (author) Bart Fransen

Book cover: Rogier Van der Weyden and Stone Sculpture in Brussels

Extent: 241 pages

Publisher: Harvey Miller

Subjects: Art & Art History, Medieval Studies

Series: Distinguished Contributions to the Study of the Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands

Series volume number: 2

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(December 2013)

ISBN: 9781909400153

8.62 x 10.98 inches

Price: $150.00

In stock

En Brabant cetait le bois, a Tournai cetait la pierre in Brabant it was wood, in Tournai it was stone. With this sweeping generalization Paul Rolland concluded his 1931 article on the fifteenth-century Tournai school of sculpture and painting. His thesis has burdened subsequent art historical research with preconceptions that continu


The activities of Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1464) were much wider in scope than the well-known painted oeuvre that has been the subject of so many publications. This book, with its focus on stone sculpture in Brussels at the time that Rogier was established there, an area of art history that to date has been little explored, offers a fresh and fascinating look at the context in which Brussels’s famous city painter operated. Bart Fransen leads you through a network of stoneworkers and craftsmen, from the stone quarry to the sculptor’s workshop, to discover a number of remarkable but unknown or misjudged sculptures now in churches, an abbey, a beguinage, a museum’s reserve collection and a castle chapel. With the various case studies in mind he goes on to examine Rogier van der Weyden’s direct involvement in sculptural projects, turning to the evidence revealed by archival documents, drawings and sculpture itself. The result is a highly readable and plentifully illustrated book that re-establishes the close relationship between the various art forms that existed in the fifteenth century.

  • By (author) Bart Fransen