DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7598#0278
CHAP. VIII.]
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN.
737
van Leyden can alone be considered in this way ; who, when yet
a child, had already given proofs of a far greater proficiency in the
difficult arts of Painting and Engraving, than we often see at-
tained by such as have made those arts their study during- the
course of a long life. Lucas was born at the city from whence he
receives his surname, about the end of May or the beginning of
June, 1494. He was instructed in the first principles of design
by his father, Hugues Jacobs, who, according to Van Mander,
was a painter of some ability, and was afterwards placed under
Corneille Enghelbrechtsen, at that time the best artist of Leyden.
Lucas is said to have produced works of art, composed as well
as executed by himself) when he was no more than nine years
of age, and to have already begun to practise engraving. All
modes of painting were soon familiar to him: he painted on glass;
in distemper; in oil colours;—and succeeded equally well in
history, in portrait, and in landscape. At the age of twelve, he
astonished the artists of the time by a work painted by him in
distemper, representing the history of St. Hubert, for which his
employer gave him in recompense as many pieces of gold as he was
years old.
The earliest dated print by Lucas van Leyden is marked with the
year 1508, when he was fourteen; but the merit of this perform-
ance, and still more the great ability displayed in several pieces
by his hand dated in the year following, appears to justify the
supposition, that not a feAv others may have been engraved by
him at least as early as the preceding year. The style of engraving
at first adopted by our artist, especially in his plates of small dimen-
sions, was one in which he appears to have sought, by the extreme
proximity of his hatchings, to give to his prints the appearance of
highly wrought miniatures, or drawings in Indian ink. He after-
wards discovered the great difficulty of producing numerous and
perfect impressions from plates so executed, and by degrees prac-
tised a more open and regular manner of laying the strokes; though
still, in his smaller engravings, he sought to unite to this clearness
j 5 B
V
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN.
737
van Leyden can alone be considered in this way ; who, when yet
a child, had already given proofs of a far greater proficiency in the
difficult arts of Painting and Engraving, than we often see at-
tained by such as have made those arts their study during- the
course of a long life. Lucas was born at the city from whence he
receives his surname, about the end of May or the beginning of
June, 1494. He was instructed in the first principles of design
by his father, Hugues Jacobs, who, according to Van Mander,
was a painter of some ability, and was afterwards placed under
Corneille Enghelbrechtsen, at that time the best artist of Leyden.
Lucas is said to have produced works of art, composed as well
as executed by himself) when he was no more than nine years
of age, and to have already begun to practise engraving. All
modes of painting were soon familiar to him: he painted on glass;
in distemper; in oil colours;—and succeeded equally well in
history, in portrait, and in landscape. At the age of twelve, he
astonished the artists of the time by a work painted by him in
distemper, representing the history of St. Hubert, for which his
employer gave him in recompense as many pieces of gold as he was
years old.
The earliest dated print by Lucas van Leyden is marked with the
year 1508, when he was fourteen; but the merit of this perform-
ance, and still more the great ability displayed in several pieces
by his hand dated in the year following, appears to justify the
supposition, that not a feAv others may have been engraved by
him at least as early as the preceding year. The style of engraving
at first adopted by our artist, especially in his plates of small dimen-
sions, was one in which he appears to have sought, by the extreme
proximity of his hatchings, to give to his prints the appearance of
highly wrought miniatures, or drawings in Indian ink. He after-
wards discovered the great difficulty of producing numerous and
perfect impressions from plates so executed, and by degrees prac-
tised a more open and regular manner of laying the strokes; though
still, in his smaller engravings, he sought to unite to this clearness
j 5 B
V