Rogier van der Weyden: Portrait of Philip I de Croÿ-Chimay & the virgin and child (1460)

(Museum of fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium & The Huntington Art Collections, San Marino, USA)

A set of two paintings by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden (1400-1464). This set is an example of a devotional portraitdiptic. These diptics usually consists of a portrait of the donor who is praying towards a religious scene. in this case the donor is Philip I de Croÿ-Chimay (1434-1482), the son of Jean II de Croÿ and Marie of Lalaing. Philip I de Croÿ-Chimay was a member of the powerful House of Croÿ and high ranking noble at the Burgundian court. As such he served as grand baillif of Hainaut, Chamberlain of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold, Knight in the order of the Golden Fleece, lord of Sempy, count of Chimay and Stadtholder of the Duchy of Guelders. Philip is praying towards a Virgin mary with Christ child who holding a decorated book (Philip was a collector of decorated books and manuscripts so perhaps the book was a piece of his collection). The letters in the upper left corner is the monogram of Philip I de Croÿ-Chimay. The entire diptic could folded together so it could be transported easily and setup. paintings from 1460.