The painting "The Dream of Pope Sergius" by the artist identified as the Follower or Rogier van der Weyden now resides at the J. Paul Getty Museum. If little is known about the Follower, including his name, not very much is known about Rogier van der Weyden, either. A few facts of his life and work have been uncovered through archival research, but the interpretation of several facts remains controversial. His most celebrated paintings were destroyed at the end of the seventeenth century, but still it is possible to cite him as one of the most powerful and perhaps most influential of all fifteenth-century European painters (Campbell 5). Van der Weyden revolutionized the art of Brussels and also had a major influence on every branch of the visual arts throughout the Netherlands. This influence is evident in the painting under discussion and in many other works from that era:
During the fifteenth century, in contracts drawn up when pictures were commissioned, it was often stated that the painting to be executed was to be exactly similar to a specified existing painting. . . Patrons came to expect the paintings which they commissioned to look like Van der Weyden's work, to see the saints and the standard religious subjects much as Van der Weyden had represented them (Campbell 17).
This is evident in "The Dream of Pope Sergius."
Just as many painters imitated Van der Weyden, so Van der Weyden was known for his similarity to Van Eyck. Together they constitute the two great figures of the first half of the 15th century, and they made the cities of the southern Netherlands renowned throughout Europe as creative centers (Gaunt 41). Van Eyck was much more the innovator than was Van der Weyden:
It was the goodness of the works of the Netherlanders, its uniform high quality, its sound methods, its careful finish, its religious docility, that made its products so highly valued even in Italy. Roger fitted exactly into that...