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LUCAS VAN LEYDEN (c. 1494-1533)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 94 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LUCAS See also:VAN See also:LEYDEN (c. 1494-1533)  , Dutch painter, was See also:born at See also:Leiden, where his See also:father Huig Jacobsz gave him the first lessons in See also:art . He then entered the See also:painting-See also:room of Cornelis Engelbrechtszen of Leiden, and soon became known for his capacity in making designs for See also:glass, See also:engraving See also:copper-plates, painting pictures, portraits and landscapes in oil and distemper . According to See also:van See also:Mander he was born in 1494, and painted at the See also:age of twelve a " See also:Legend of St See also:Hubert " for which he was paid a dozen florins . He was only fourteen when he finished a See also:plate representing See also:Mahomet taking the See also:life of See also:Sergius, the See also:monk, and at fifteen he produced a See also:series of nine plates for a "See also:Passion," a "Temptation of St See also:Anthony," and a "See also:Conversion 94 of St See also:Paul." The See also:list of his engravings in 1510, when, according to van Mander, he was only sixteen, includes subjects as various as a celebrated " Ecce Homo," " See also:Adam and See also:Eve expelled from See also:Paradise," a herdsman and a milkmaid with three cows, and a little naked girl See also:running away from a See also:barking See also:dog . Whatever may be thought of the tradition embodied in van Mander's pages as to the true age of See also:Lucas van See also:Leyden, there is no doubt that, as See also:early as 1508, he was a See also:master of repute as a copper-plate engraver . It was the See also:time when art found patrons among the public that could See also:ill afford to buy pictures, yet had enough See also:interest in culture to satisfy itself by means of prints . Lucas van Leyden became the representative See also:man for the public of See also:Holland as See also:Durer for that of See also:Germany; and a rivalry See also:grew up between the two engravers, which came to be so See also:close that on the neutral See also:market of See also:Italy the products of each were all but evenly quoted . See also:Vasari affirmed that Durer surpassed Lucas as a designer, but that in the use of the graver they were both unsurpassed, a See also:judgment which has not been reversed . But the rivalry was friendly . About the time when Durer visited the See also:Netherlands Lucas went to See also:Antwerp, which then flourished as an See also:international mart for productions of the See also:pencil and the graver, and it is thought that he was the master who took the freedom of the Antwerp gild in 1521 under the name of Lucas the Hollander . In Mirer's See also:diary kept during his travels in the See also:Low Countries, we find that at Antwerp he met Lucas, who asked him to See also:dinner, and that Purer accepted . He valued the art of Lucas at its true figure, and exchanged the Dutchman's prints for eight florins' See also:worth of his own .

In 1527 Lucas made a tour of the Netherlands, giving dinners to the painters of the See also:

gilds of Middleburg, See also:Ghent, See also:Malines and Antwerp . He was accompanied during the trip by See also:Mabuse, whom he imitated in his See also:style as well as in his love of See also:rich See also:costume . On his return See also:home he See also:fell sick and remained ailing till his See also:death in 1533, and he believed that See also:poison had been administered to him by some envious comrade . A few days before his death Lucas van Leyden was informed of the See also:birth of a See also:grandson, first-born of his only daughter Gretchen . Gretchen's See also:fourth son See also:JEAN DE HoEV followed the profession of his grandfather, and became well known at the Parisian See also:court as painter and See also:chamberlain to the See also:king of See also:France, See also:Henry IV . As an engraver Lucas van Leyden deserves his reputation . He has not the See also:genius, nor had he the See also:artistic tact, of Durer; and he displays more cleverness of expression than skill in See also:distribution or in refinement in details . But his See also:power in handling the graver is See also:great, and some f his portraits, especially his own, are equal to anything by the ,raster of See also:Nuremberg . Much that he accomplished as a painter has been lost, because he worked a See also:good See also:deal upon See also:cloth in distemper . In 1522 he painted the " Virgin and See also:Child with the Magdalen and a Kneeling Donor," now in the See also:gallery of See also:Munich . His manner was then akin to that of Mabuse . The " Last Judgment " in the See also:town-gallery of Leiden is composed on the traditional lines of Cristus and Memling, with monsters in the style of Jerom See also:Bosch and figures in the See also:stilted attitudes of the See also:South See also:German school; the See also:scale of See also:colours in yellow, See also:white and See also:grey is at once See also:pale and See also:gaudy, the quaintest contrasts are produced by the juxtaposition of See also:alabaster flesh in See also:females and bronzed skin in See also:males, or See also:black See also:hair by the See also:side of yellow, or See also:rose-coloured drapery set sharply against See also:apple-See also:green or black; yet some of the heads are painted with great delicacy and modelled with exquisite feeling .

Dr See also:

Waagen gave a favourable See also:opinion of a See also:triptych now at the Hermitage at St See also:Petersburg, executed, according to van Mander, in 1531, representing the " See also:Blind Man of See also:Jericho healed by Jesus See also:Christ." Here too the German critic observed the See also:union of faulty See also:composition with great finish and warm flesh-tints with a gaudy scale of colours . The same defects and qualities will be found in such specimens as are preserved in public collections, among which may be mentioned the " Card Party " at See also:Wilton See also:House, the " Penitent St See also:Jerome " in the gallery of See also:Berlin, and the hermits " Paul " and " Anthony " in the See also:Liechtenstein collection at See also:Vienna . There is a characteristic " See also:Adoration of the Magi " at See also:Buckingham See also:Palace .

End of Article: LUCAS VAN LEYDEN (c. 1494-1533)
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