Portrait of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy

This portrait, painted in 1515, reflects the conventions of sixteenth-century portraiture at the height of the High Renaissance. Rogier van der Weyden brings characteristic skill to the depiction of the sitter. Oil on canvas — by the sixteenth century the dominant medium for ambitious works — allowed successive glazes of transparent color and freedom to rework the composition. Rogier van der Weyden's portraits belong to the tradition of Flemish panel portraiture that he helped establish alongside Jan van Eyck in the second quarter of the fifteenth century. His portrait manner differs from van Eyck's: where van Eyck created crystalline precision, Rogier achieved emotional depth — his sitters are shown in the act of containing their inner lives, their faces the surfaces on which spiritual and psychological experience registers with extraordinary subtlety. His influence on the development of the European portrait was enormous: his three-quarter bust format, his use of a plain background to focus attention on the face, and his emphasis on the sitter's spiritual and moral character established conventions that would persist for a century.

Executed in Oil on canvas, the work showcases Rogier van der Weyden's skilled technique, with particular attention to the interplay of light across the sitter's features. The handling of drapery and accessories demonstrates the skill expected of formal portraiture.