Robert Campin (1378–April 26, 1444) is sometimes considered the first great master of Flemish painting. Although heavily indebted to contemporary masters of manuscript illumination, Campin displayed greater powers of realistic observation than any other painter before him.
Art historians have always been eager to trace the beginnings of Northern Renaissance to one single artist. For a long time it was accepted that Jan van Eyck was the first painter to depart from conventions of Gothic art.
By the end of the 19th century it became clear, however, that van Eyck was preceded by an artist who painted the MérodeAltarpiece from the Abbey of Flémalle. Dated to about 1428, the altarpiece (now in the Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum) is permeated with loving attention to details and spirit of bourgeois materialism. A later altarpiece in a similar manner, also from Flémalle, is now exhibited in Frankfurt am Main. It was assumed that these works belong to one Master of Flémalle whose identity at that time could not be established.
In the 20th century, several scholars suggested that the Master of Flémalle may be none other than Robert Campin, documented as a master painter in Tournai from 1406. The argument turns around a paper mentioning two pupils entering his studio in 1427 - Jacques Daret and Rogelet de la Pasture. The last named was probably the great Rogier van der Weyden. The only documented altarpiece of Daret shows striking similiarities with works of Master of Flémalle, as do early works by Rogier. Therefore it is tempting to assume that both Daret and Rogier were disciples of the Master of Flémalle, i.e. Robert Campin. Another possibility, however, is that Flémalle altarpieces were painted by Rogier himself when he was still in his twenties.
Several works attributed to Robert Campin may be seen in the Hermitage, Prado, and the National Gallery (London).
Three principal innovations distinguish Campin's art and set it apart from the Gothic: his conception of the human figure in solid, three-dimensional terms; his awareness of perspective; and his preoccupation with the details of everyday life.
Campin's work exerted an important influence on the two later masters of Flemish art, his pupil Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck.
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