Lucas van Leyden

Also called, Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, Leyden was a Dutch engraver and painter, born and active mainly in the town he took his surname for, Leyden (today Leiden). He was among the first Dutch exponents of genre painting and is generally regarded as one of the finest engravers in the history of art.

He first trained with his father, of which little is known, and with Cornelis Engelbrechtsz, both of who were painters, whereas Leyden himself was principally an engraver. Where he learnt engraving is unknown, but he was highly skilled even at an early age; his earliest known print, Mohammed and the Murdered Monk dates from 1508.

He is recorded as being in the Leyden Painters’ Guild in 1514, with documented travel to Antwerp and Middleburg. In the latter, it is said that he met the influential Flemish painter, Jan Mabuse, though the Leyden’s most important influence was the German painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528). Where Dürer’s works were often profound and complex, Leyden approached his own as a style of genre works.

While he was sometimes even elevated above Dürer as an engraver, the artist was also a somewhat accomplished painter. Of his well know painted works are his genre works, Chess Players and Card Players, and his celebrated religious piece, a Last Judgment triptych. Of his other religious paintings is, The Mocking of Christ, now in the Uffizi Gallery.

(This text is taken from the www.wikipedia.org entry on Lucas Leyden, which is under the GNU Free Documentation License, and also the Web Gallery of Art)