Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/504

496 connected with engraving, painting, perspective, and architecture.

But to return to the subject of copper-plate engraving. The works of Albert were an incitement to Luca of Holland, who did his utmost to follow in the traces of Dürer, and after the productions above enumerated, he engraved stories from the life of Joseph on copper, as also the four Evangelists, the three Angels who appeared to Abraham in the Valley of Mamre; Susannah in the Bath; David in Prayer; Mordecai led in triumph through the city on horseback; Lot inebriated by his Daughters; the creation of Adam and Eve; the Command of God that they shall not eat of an apple from the tree, which he points out to them; and Cain killing his brother Abel, all which he published in the year 1529. But that which most of all contributed to give name and fame to Luca, was a large plate in which he engraved the Crucifixion of Christ, with another wherein Pilate brings forth our Saviour to the people, uttering the words Ecce Homo! These plates, which are large, as we have said, and comprise a vast number of figures, are considered exceedingly fine, as is also a Conversion of St. Paul, and another in which that apostle is represented as being led blind into Damascus; works which amply suffice to prove that Luca may with truth be numbered among those who have handled the burin with ability.

The composition and grouping of this master’s works are very peculiar, and have a clearness, and freedom from confusion, which makes the spectator doubt if the fact represented could have taken place in any other manner than that here given; there is also more of artistic arrangement in the groups of Luca than in those of Albert Dürer. It is like-