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Overview
Born in the city of Leiden, Lucas van Leyden was the first Dutch engraver to achieve wide acclaim in his lifetime. He made about 200 prints, mostly engravings, but also woodcuts and a few etchings. He met Albrecht Dürer in 1521 during the German artist's year-long visit to the Netherlands, and Dürer drew Lucas's portraits and bought a set of his prints. It is likely that van Leyden simultanously acquired some of Dürer's prints, as his influence is evident in van Lucas's work in the early 1520s.
This print, the 13th in a series of 14, dates from much earlier. Lucas was a child prodigy artist, and this impressive series, made when he was just 16, shows no signs of immaturity. In 1845, the pioneering Anglo-Irish art historian and iconographer Anna Jameson described it as 'magnificent in point of feeling'. St Matthew, who was a tax collector before he became one of the apostles, is shown here holding a halberd (a pole held with two arms which incorporates an axe blade, a spear point, and a pick/hammer beak). It has been suggested that he may have used this weapon to assist in his tax collecting work; alternatively it could arise from a confusion with his near namesake, the apostle St Matthias, who is often depicted with a battle-axe, the instrument of his martyrdom. Visually this is a convincing depiction, with the vertical of the halberd nicely echoing the saint's vertical drapery folds.
See: David Maskill, 'Lucas van Leyden 1494-1533 Netherlands', in William McAloon (ed.), Art at Te Papa (Wellington, 2009), p. 26.
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art January 2017