We know precious little about the life of Rogier van der Weyden, one of the most influential and greatest painters of that cradle of the Renaissance, mid-15th-century Flanders. This series will examine important lost works, considering both their influence on history and the story of art, but also their “biography” as an object-how they were lost, and why.Ī tapestry copy of The Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald now in the Historical Museum of Bern Rogier van der Weyden’s The Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald in the Golden Chamber (around 1435-50) It also underscores the preciousness of that which we still possess, which we can visit and which, all too often, we take for granted. It is easy to imagine a survey of Western art history course taught exclusively through important lost works.

Learning the story of some of these important missing pieces illuminates the shadowy ancillary chapels of art history, painting a negative-space portrait of that which is familiar. But archaeologists study that which is lost, or in such ruin that it must be reconstructed with the imagination or digital technology. This is understandable, since it is easier to teach something that one can visit. And yet, when we study art history, we tend to teach the same core of several-hundred objects that are all extant. Some of the lost works were more influential to history and art than the works that do survive by these artists. Many of those works are known through archival material and primary source documents, and yet we have no idea where they are.

By many estimates, as much as two-thirds of the oeuvre of the Old Masters-artists like Leonardo, Michelangelo and Titian-is considered lost.

Ancillary justice amazon