LEYDEN, Aertgen van

The meaning of this painting, showing a priest in his pulpit addressing a crowd in and around a Renaissance church, is not clear. Perhaps it depicts the scene of The Calling of St Anthony. Until the 1930s the panel was attributed to Lucas van Leyden. Since then it is attributed to Aertgen van Leyden, or to an anonymous Leiden artist named after this painting Master of the Church Sermon who is presumed to have been apprenticed to Cornelis Engebrechtsz, a Leiden painter with a large workshop and many apprentices.

Little is known about the painter Aertgen van Leyden. In 1516 he was a pupil of Cornelis Engebrechtsz and he worked in Leiden until his death in 1564. The biographer Karel van Mander describes Aertgen’s style as extremely varied, with marked stylistic changes. This makes it difficult to compile an overview of his work.