Lucas van Leyden

Here two monstrous hybrid creatures stand on each side of a seated winged man. This small composition is an ornament design, inspired by ancient Roman painted decorations known as grotesques. Working on a small scale, Netherlandish artist Lucas van Leyden creates a vivid sense of relief by setting his figures against a dark background built up from a dense grid of engraved lines.

Inspired by Italian prints and works by Albrecht Dürer, Lucas was the first Dutch artist to become famous for his engravings, among the most refined early achievements in the technique. Lucas’s plates were often reprinted and copied in later centuries. In 1879, the engraver James S. Gill made a faithful, though reversed, copy of the print.