Lucas van Leyden

Lucas van Leyden (1494-1533)

Lucas van Leyden was the son of a Leiden painter Hugo Jacobsz. After an initial training in his father's studio, he was apprenticed to the painter Cornelis Engebrechtsz. At an early age, Van Leyden went through a whirlwind artistic development and became a successful painter. The fact that he was a member of two militia companiesMilitiasIn the Late Middle Ages the first militia units were formed. The various companies were named after the weapons they bore: the longbowmen, the crossbowmen and the arquebusiers, named after the 16th-century weapon, the arquebus or 'klover'. Civic guard units were deployed to quell riots and were called up in war. They also patrolled the city. Militiamen supplied their own equipment and uniforms, so they usually came from the wealthier classes. It was customary for companies to commission artists to paint their portraits. In the prosperous 17th century numerous civic guard portraits were painted. means that he must been one of the prosperous Leiden burghers. Between 1526 and 1528 he married a girl from a distinguished family, Lysbeth van Boschuysen, the mayor's daughter. The marriage remained childless. Lucas van Leyden died in Leiden in 1533.