Lucas van Leyden
Profile
Luca van Lyeden
Dutch 1494 - 1533
Lucas van Leyden (real name Lucas Hugensz or Jacobsz) was born in 1494 in Leinden in the Netherlands. He studied painting under his father and Cornelis Engelbrechtsz. Where he learned engraving is unknown, but he was highly skilled at an early age, producing his first print, “Mohammed and the Murdered Monk” at the age of fourteen.
Leyden entered the Painter’s Guild at Leiden in 1514 and he seems to have traveled a good amount, with recorded visits to Antwerp in 1521 and Middleburg in 1527. A series of dated engravings makes it possible to follow his career as a printmaker. Leyden is universally regarded as one of the great figures in the history of graphic art, having made etchings, woodcuts and engravings. Leyden left no known pupils or followers, but his work was a stimulus to fellow Leiden-born artist, Rembrandt. Lucas Leyden died in Leiden in 1533.