Portrait of Francesco d'Este
Portrait of Francesco d'Este is a small oil on wood panel painting by the Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden dating to around 1460.
He was identified as a member of the d'Este family from the crest on the reverse and long thought to be Francesco's father Lionello, an Italian and highly placed Burgundian prince and patron of Rogier.
The panel was painted when the sitter was about 30 years old[2] and is considered one of van der Weyden's finest portraits,[3] in many ways a culmination of his later, more austere work.
Van der Weyden sought to flatter d'Este; although not handsome, he is shown as broad-chested, with a sensitive and cultured face, keen expression, long neck and aquiline nose.
The painting is unusually secular for the time, seeking to flatter d'Este's worldly position, rather than highlight his devotional worth or personal humility.
The background is one of its most striking features, its shallowness at odds with the deep, shadowed and atmospheric kind popular in Northern art since van Eyck.
In contrast to the deep atmospheric space the sitters occupy in these works, here d'Este is set against a plain white or ivory flattened background with little shadow, a hark back to the traditions of the style of the International Gothic.
[9] In common with most of van der Weyden's male portraits, d'Este is shown half profile, staring aloofly into the middle distance.
"[3] d'Este's broad chest is out of proportion to his long bony fingers and wide enough that his head looks undersized in comparison - it reaches across the width of the canvas.
[2][7] Given the similarity of the crest to that of his father's, as well as the significance of various letterings, many art historians see it as indicative of the illegitimate sitter's aspiration to be recognised as Leonello's son, with all the entitlements and historical recognition such acceptance would entail.
The panel displays many of the typical characteristics of male portraits painted around the time of his visit to England, including the plain, shallow backdrop, the three-quarters view, the slightly pious middle gaze, and the focus on the sitter's thin and delicate hands.
The work is exemplary of van der Weyden's handling of paint, and its choice and richness of colour marked as one of his c 1460 male portraits completed during his visit to Italy, in the opinion of many art historians, perhaps his finest.
