The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Engraving, 21,5 x 27,5 cm (platemark), laid paper with 19th-c. watermark "Portfolio MBM" (not in Heawood), wide margins, monogrammed in plate in tablet at lower right edge "L" (some min. brown spots in margin).

Under passe-partout. A late but very fine impression.

One of Lucas van Leyden's best early engravings, representing the moment when the prodigal son comes home and asks his father for forgiveness (Luc 15:11-32). In the print Lucas emulates Dürer's sense of detail and storytelling. In the far background we can notice the best calf being slaugthered to celebrate the return and the reclining landscape in which the young artist created a tremendous feeling of depth. A 19th-c. impression of the third and final state.
Ref. Amsterdam 1978: 78.4. - New Hollstein (Van Leyden) 78.