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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 Lucas simultanously acquired some of Dürer's prints, as his influence is evident in Lucas's work in the early 1520s.
This print, the ninth of 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'. This engraving depicts the apostle St Bartholomew, who like St Thomas, reputedly preached the Gospel in India. One of the more vivid prints in the series, it shows the saint looking in the opposite direction from the way he is walking. Something or someone has captured his attention. Could it be the heathen adversaries who, according to Christian tradition, meted out a terrible martyrdom on him? One such account claims he was skinned alive, which explains why he carries a large knife in his right hand. He clutches a rosary with huge beads in his other hand, attesting to his faith. Lucas has added a further, highly effective, dramatic element in the massive halo, while the rough terrain - indicating Bartholomew's itinerant preaching - contrasts with the largely blank backgrounds of the other prints in the series. One puzzling feature is the number of beads in his rosary - most rosaries from the later 16th century have 50 beads - or at the very least ten for the Hail Mary prayer, whereas the one here appears to only have eight or nine at the most.
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