<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Campin</span>

Robert Campin

<p><b>Robert Campin</b> (c. 1375 – 26 April 1444), now usually identified with the <b>Master of Flémalle</b> (earlier the <b>Master of the Merode Triptych</b>, before the discovery of three other similar panels),<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span> was the first great master of <a href="/en/Early_Netherlandish_painting" title="Early Netherlandish painting" class="wl">Early Netherlandish painting</a>. While the existence of a highly successful painter called Robert Campin is relatively well documented for the period, no works can be certainly identified as by him through a signature or contemporary documentation. A group of paintings, none dated, have been long attributed to him, and a further group were once attributed to an unknown "Master of Flémalle".  It is now usually thought that both groupings are by Campin, but this has been a matter of some controversy for decades. <span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-LC_2-0"><a href="#cite_note-LC-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[2]</span></a></span></p> 

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Belgian painter (c. 1375 – 1444)</div><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1096954695/mw-parser-output/.tmulti" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .tmulti .multiimageinner{display:flex;flex-direction:column}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow{display:flex;flex-direction:row;clear:left;flex-wrap:wrap;width:100%;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle{margin:1px;float:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .theader{clear:both;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;align-self:center;background-color:transparent;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .thumbcaption{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-left{text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-right{text-align:right}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-center{text-align:center}@media all and (max-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .tmulti .thumbinner{width:100%!important;box-sizing:border-box;max-width:none!important;align-items:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow{justify-content:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle{float:none!important;max-width:100%!important;box-sizing:border-box;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle .thumbcaption{text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow>.thumbcaption{text-align:center}}</style><div class="thumb tmulti tright" about="#mwt2"><div class="thumbinner multiimageinner" style="width:408px;max-width:408px"><div class="trow"><div class="tsingle" style="width:202px;max-width:202px"><div class="thumbimage"><span><a href="/en/File:Robert_Campin_013.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Robert_Campin_013.jpg"><img loading="lazy" alt="Robert_Campin_013.jpg" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Robert_Campin_013.jpg/200px-Robert_Campin_013.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="2870" data-file-height="4226" data-file-type="bitmap" height="294" width="200" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Robert_Campin_013.jpg/300px-Robert_Campin_013.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Robert_Campin_013.jpg/400px-Robert_Campin_013.jpg 2x"></a></span></div><div class="thumbcaption"><i><a href="/en/A_Man_and_A_Woman_(Campin)" title="A Man and A Woman (Campin)" class="wl">Portrait of a Man</a></i>, c. 1435. 40.7cm x 28.1cm. <a href="/en/National_Gallery" title="National Gallery" class="wl">National Gallery</a></div></div><div class="tsingle" style="width:202px;max-width:202px"><div class="thumbimage"><span><a href="/en/File:Robert_Campin_012.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Robert_Campin_012.jpg"><img loading="lazy" alt="Robert_Campin_012.jpg" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Robert_Campin_012.jpg/200px-Robert_Campin_012.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="2870" data-file-height="4226" data-file-type="bitmap" height="294" width="200" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Robert_Campin_012.jpg/300px-Robert_Campin_012.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Robert_Campin_012.jpg/400px-Robert_Campin_012.jpg 2x"></a></span></div><div class="thumbcaption"><i><a href="/en/A_Man_and_A_Woman_(Campin)" title="A Man and A Woman (Campin)" class="wl">Portrait of a Woman</a></i>, c. 1435. 40.6cm x 28.1cm. <a href="/en/National_Gallery" title="National Gallery" class="wl">National Gallery</a></div></div></div></div></div>

<p>A corpus of work is attached to the unidentified "Master of Flémalle,"<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-campb_3-0"><a href="#cite_note-campb-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[3]</span></a></span><span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-j33_4-0"><a href="#cite_note-j33-4" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 4;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[4]</span></a></span> <a href="/en/Notname" title="Notname" class="wl">so named</a> in the 19th century after three religious panels said to have come from a monastery in Flémalle. They are each assumed to be  wings of <a href="/en/Triptych" title="Triptych" class="wl">triptychs</a> or <a href="/en/Polyptych" title="Polyptych" class="wl">polyptychs</a>, and are the <i>Virgin and Child with a Firescreen</i> now in London, a panel fragment with the <i>Thief on the Cross</i> in Frankfurt, and the Brussels version of the <i><a href="/en/Mérode_Altarpiece" title="Mérode Altarpiece" class="wl">Mérode Altarpiece</a></i>.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-5"><a href="#cite_note-5" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 5;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[5]</span></a></span></p>

<p>Campin was active by 1406 as a master painter in <a href="/en/Tournai" title="Tournai" class="wl">Tournai</a>, in today's Belgium, and became that city's leading painter for 30 years. He had attained citizenship by 1410, and may have studied under <a href="/en/Jan_van_Eyck" title="Jan van Eyck" class="wl">Jan van Eyck</a>. His fame had spread enough by 1419 that he led a large and profitable workshop. He became involved in the <a href="/en/Revolt_of_the_Brotherhoods" title="Revolt of the Brotherhoods" class="wl">revolt of the Brotherhoods</a> in the early 1420s; this, along with an extra-marital affair with a woman named Leurence Pol, led to his imprisonment. Yet he maintained his standing and workshop until his death in 1444.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-6"><a href="#cite_note-6" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 6;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[6]</span></a></span></p>
 
<p>The early Campin panels shows the influence of the <a href="/en/International_Gothic" title="International Gothic" class="wl">International Gothic</a> artists the <a href="/en/Limbourg_brothers" title="Limbourg brothers" class="wl">Limbourg brothers</a> (1385 – 1416) and <a href="/en/Melchior_Broederlam" title="Melchior Broederlam" class="wl">Melchior Broederlam</a> (c. 1350 – c.1409), but display a more realistic observation than any earlier artists, which he achieved through innovations in the use of <a href="/en/Oil_paint" title="Oil paint" class="wl">oil paints</a>. He was successful in his lifetime, and the recipient of a number of civic commissions. Campin taught both <a href="/en/Rogier_van_der_Weyden" title="Rogier van der Weyden" class="wl">Rogier van der Weyden</a> (named in these early records as Rogelet de la Pasture, a French version of his name) and <a href="/en/Jacques_Daret" title="Jacques Daret" class="wl">Jacques Daret</a>.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-7"><a href="#cite_note-7" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 7;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[7]</span></a></span> He was a contemporary of <a href="/en/Jan_van_Eyck" title="Jan van Eyck" class="wl">Jan van Eyck</a>, and they met in 1427. Campin's best known work is the <i>Mérode Altarpiece</i> of c 1425–28.</p>



Robert Campin , now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle , A corpus of work is attached to the unidentified "Master of Flémalle," Campin was active by 1406 as a master painter in Tournai, in today's Belgium, and became that city's leading painter for 30 years. He had attained citizenship by 1410, and may have studied under Jan van Eyck. His fame had spread enough by 1419 that he led a large and profitable workshop. He became involved in the revolt of the Brotherhoods in the early 1420s; this, along with an extra-marital affair with a woman named Leurence Pol, led to his imprisonment. Yet he maintained his standing and workshop until his death in 1444. 