De apostel Paulus 1508 - 1512

Lucas van Leyden made this print of the Apostle Paul using engraving techniques sometime between 1520 and 1530. Paul is shown here with the attributes by which he was known: the book, referring to his Epistles, and the sword, the instrument of his martyrdom. Look closely, and you'll notice that Lucas depicts Paul barefoot, a symbol of humility and piety. This imagery was produced in the Netherlands during the early Reformation. The institutions of the Church faced a great deal of scrutiny during this time, and the figure of Paul was often invoked by reformers for his insistence on faith over ritual. Note that the artist has included his initial in the lower right of the image. It could be argued that the presence of this signature aligns the artist’s creative agency with the Apostle’s spiritual authority, although further research into Lucas’s biography and other works would be required to develop this argument further.