Portrait of a Stout Man
Robert Campin·1425
Historical Context
This Portrait of a Stout Man, attributed to Robert Campin (the Master of Flémalle) and dated around 1425, is one of the earliest independent portraits in Netherlandish painting. Now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, the work shows Campin's pioneering naturalism in its unflinching depiction of the sitter's heavy features. Campin, based in Tournai, was instrumental in developing the new realistic style that Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden would perfect.
Technical Analysis
Campin's forthright realism captures the sitter's corpulent features with direct, unidealized observation, using strong directional lighting to model the broad face and employing the newly developing oil technique of the early Netherlandish masters.
