“ As an engraver Lucas van Leyden deserves his reputation. He has not the genius, nor had he the artistic tact, of Dürer; and he displays more cleverness of expression than skill in distribution or in refinement in details. But his power in handling the graver is great, and some of his portraits, especially his own, are equal to anything by the master of Nüremberg. Much that he accomplished as a painter has been lost, because he worked a good deal upon cloth in distemper. ”

“ Whatever may be thought of the tradition embodied in van Mander’s pages as to the true age of Lucas van Leyden, there is no doubt that, as early as 1508, he was a master of repute as a copperplate engraver. It was the time when art found patrons among the public that could ill afford to buy pictures, yet had enough interest in culture to satisfy itself by means of prints. Lucas van Leyden became the representative man for the public of Holland as Dürer for that of Germany ”

“ The list of his engravings in 1510, when, according to van Mander, he was only sixteen, includes subjects as various as a celebrated “Ecce Homo,” “Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise,” a herdsman and a milkmaid with three cows, and a little naked girl running away from a barking dog. ”