Pinchart, Alexandre Joseph

Date born: 1823

Place Born:

Date died: 1884

Place died:

Rogier van der Weyden scholar. Pinchart contributed an essay in to the 1862 French edition of the survey of Flemish art by Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Cavalcaselle. Pinchart's essay in this revised work, Les anciens peintres flamands, attempted to correct the errors of previous scholars using primary sources in which Pinchard specialized. His revisions were incorporated in the second English editon of Crowe and Cavalcasselle's book. In 1867 Pinchart published two documents referring to "Rogelet de le Pasture" a native of Tournai and an apprentice to Robert Campin, apparently Tournai between 1427 and 1432. The scholarship set off a debate among scholars as to Rogier's artistic origin.

Pinchart was important for the contribution he made in the identification of van der Weyden. The 1568 edition of the Vite by Giorgio Vasari claimed "Rogier of Bruges" as a student of van Eyck and a "Rogier van der Weyden of Brussels" as the painter of the justice panels in the town hall in Brussels. Karel Van Mander continued this separation of the two Rogiers in his 1604 Schilderboek. A debate ensued over the distinction between two different Rogiers. Carl Hasse considered the two distinct though others considered the work to be of one artist. Pinchart's identification of "Rogelet de le Pasture" (van der Weyden in Flemish) as an apprentice to Campin framed the argument for van der Weyden as of the school of Tournai. This began one of the major discussions of northern Renaissance art history as to whether he belonged to France or Flanders (Lane).

Home Country:  Belgium

Sources:   Lane, Barbara G. "Introduction: The Problem of Two Rogiers." Flemish Painting Outside Bruges, 1400-1500: An Annotated Bibliography. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986, pp. xvi-xvii.

Bibliography: contributor (notes) Crowe, Joseph Archer. Les anciens peintres flamands, leur vie et leurs œuvres. 2 vols. Brussels: F. Heussner, 1862-1965;

Subject's name: Alexandre Joseph Pinchart