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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 second 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'. This engraving, depicting St Peter holding his traditional symbol of the huge key of heaven, seemingly in the act of walking, belies its tiny scale and conveys monumental authority. The immediate international impact of this print is seen in the use of a very similar figure of St Simon Zelotes painted on the chancel screen of the St Mary's church, Worstead, Norfolk. The artist changed the relevant symbol to the fish of St Simon. The painter followed the print so closely that he experienced problems with the proportions of the figure within the panel.
See:
David Maskill, 'Lucas van Leyden 1494-1533 Netherlands', in William McAloon (ed.), Art at Te Papa (Wellington, 2009), p. 26.
A. Moore, 'The Evidence of Contact between Norfolk and the Netherlands', in Juliette Roding et al. (eds), The North Sea and Culture, 1550-1800... (Leiden, 1996), p. 356.
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art January 2017