Lucas van Leyden

Lucas van Leyden was a prodigy of the burin. By his mid-teens he was producing engravings of a delicacy that put him in the same conversation as Albrecht Durer, the German master who dominated European printmaking, and the two artists met and exchanged portraits when Durer travelled through the Low Countries in 1521.

Working in the Dutch town of Leiden, Lucas treated the engraved line almost like atmosphere. He softened his backgrounds into hazy distance and graded his tones so finely that his prints seem to hold real air and light, a step beyond Durer's crisp precision.

He painted as well, and his large panel of the Last Judgment shows the same feel for open space, but it was the prints that travelled and carried his fame across Europe. He died at 38, having been, by legend, sickly for years. Rembrandt, a century later and from the same town, collected and prized his work.