Church Sermon
by LEYDEN, Aertgen van, Oil on panel, 133 x 96 cm
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.