The Dutch engraver and painter Lucas van Leyden (ca. 1494-1533) was the leading graphic artist in the Netherlands in the early 16th century.

Because Lucas van Leyden showed such a highly developed graphic talent in engravings dated 1508, his birth date has been thought by some to be as early as 1489. Generally, however, scholarly opinion has accepted Karel van Mander's statement (1604) that Lucas was born in Leyden (Leiden) in 1494. His father, Hughe Jacobsz, was his first teacher, followed by the mannerist painter Cornelis Engelbrechtsz. In 1515 Lucas was married in Leyden, where he worked all his life. In 1521 he traveled to Antwerp. There he met Albrecht Dürer, whose works provided the most important artistic influence on his graphic oeuvre.

Lucas's engraving Mohammed and the Monk Sergius (1508) confirms Van Mander's story of his precocity. His technical mastery and compositional skill at this early age presuppose considerable training and experience...