Lucas van Leyden

Albrecht Dürer’s prints had made their way to the Netherlands by the early 1500s, and the German master’s success in the medium may have encouraged the younger Lucas van Leyden to pursue printmaking with dedication. Lucas’s preeminence in engraving and his influence on the style of other engravers would come to rival that of Dürer. Lucas carved shallower lines than Dürer, which meant that his plates held up to fewer impressions on the press. His delicate, feathery strokes and his characteristic use of a gray, silvery ink created atmospheric effects far more subtle than Dürer’s boldly graphic compositions.

While on the road to Damascus, Saul, a persecutor of Christians, was struck by a blinding light and, confronted with the voice of Christ, converted to Christianity. Now St. Paul, he became one of the most important early missionaries. Lucas portrayed the dramatic conversion only in the far left background. In the foreground, he depicted the blinded Paul led, helpless, to Damascus. Lucas often inverted the dramatic and mundane aspects of religious narratives, which challenged viewers to ponder the true nature of the story: in this case, St. Paul’s temporary blindness contrasts with his spiritual revelation or “true” vision.