Lucas Van Leyden (redirected from Huyghszoon)

Lucas van Leyden (lü`käs vän lī`dən), 1494–1533, Dutch historical and genre painter and engraver. With Lucas, Dutch painting of scenes from daily life may be said to begin. His art is notable for its realistic treatment, dramatic power, and careful execution. He studied with his father, Huig Jacobsz, a Leiden artist, and with Cornelis Engelbrechtsz and soon established himself as an engraver of extraordinary ability, as well as a painter of originality and power. A child prodigy and prolific artist, Lucas executed more than 200 engravings, etchings, and designs for woodcuts, including Mohammed and the Monk (1508), Ecce Homo (1510), and Adam and Eve (1519). From c.1510 his works show the influence of Dürer, whom he met on a visit to Antwerp in 1521. They drew and exchanged portraits of each other. Later Lucas's style reflected his study of the prints of Marcantonio Raimondi. Among his paintings are Moses Striking Water from the Rock (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston); Chess Game, St. Jerome, and Virgin Enthroned (Berlin); and Last Judgment (Leiden).

Bibliography

See his complete engravings, etchings, and woodcuts, ed. by J. Lavalleye (tr. 1967).

---

Lucas (Huyghszoon) van Leyden

(born 1489/94, Leiden, Neth.—died before Aug. 8, 1533, Leiden) Netherlandish painter and engraver. He was trained by his father, a painter, but his great talent was as an engraver. Even such youthful prints as Muhammad and the Monk Sergius (1508) show great technical skill. In 1510, under the influence of Albrecht Dürer, he produced two masterpieces of engraving, The Milkmaid and Ecce Homo, the latter much admired by Rembrandt. He is thought to have developed the technique of etching on copper (instead of iron) plates; the softness of copper permitted him to combine etching and line engraving in the same print. He was also among the first to employ aerial perspective in prints. Though his paintings seldom attain the power of his engravings, he was an outstanding Netherlandish painter of his period; The Last Judgment (1526–27) is his most celebrated painting.

---

Lucas van Leyden

?1494--1533, Dutch painter and engraver

---

Lucas Van Leyden 

Born in 1489 or 1494 in Leiden; died there in 1533. Dutch painter and engraver, a representative of the Dutch Renaissance.

Lucas van Leyden studied with his father, Huygh Jacobsz (1504-08), and with Cornelis Engelbrechtsen. He very early mastered the art of line engraving on copper (Muhammad With the Monk, 1508; David and Saul, 1509). Later he did etchings and woodcuts. His graphic works, which were filled with the tension of artistic strivings, reflect the influence of A. Diirer, whom Lucas knew personally. From the late 1520’s his prints showed the influence of Italian Renaissance engraving, particularly the work of Marcantonio Raimondi (The Milkmaid, 1510; Dance of the Magdalene, 1519; The Poet Virgil Suspended in a Basket, 1523).

Lucas’ portraits and paintings of genre scenes are marked by a keen interest in the human personality (The Chess Players, c. 1508-10, Dahlem Museum, Berlin; Self-portrait, c. 1514, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig; Portrait of a Man, c. 1521, National Gallery, London). In his religious compositions, such as Sermon in Church (c. 1521, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and the triptych Healing of the Blind Man (1531, Hermitage, Leningrad), a strong interest in everyday details is oddly combined with a mannerist stylization of the figures’ movements and poses. Lucas van Leyden was also a miniature painter and an outstanding graphic artist.

REFERENCES

Nikulin, N. Luka Leidenskii. Leningrad-Moscow, 1961.
Klimov, R. B. “Tvorchestvo Luki Leidenskogo i Vysokoe Vozrozhdenie v Niderlandakh.” In the collection Ot epokhi Vozrozhdeniia k dvadtsatomu veku. Moscow, 1963.
Friedlander, M. Lucas van Leyden. Berlin, 1963.

N. N. NIKULIN