Lucas van Leyden

Lucas van Leyden was a celebrated Dutch painter and engraver who lived from 1494 through 1533 in Leiden, a city of the Netherlands. Lucas van Leyden is known for his exceptional talent as both as an engraver and a painter. Artaud uses the Dutch painter's "Daughters of Lot" masterpiece in the opening example in the chapter called "Metaphysics and the Mise en Scène." The painter's name also appears in the last of the "Letters on Language."

"Daughters of Lot" (circa 1509) depicts Lot and his family in a scene that compounds many elements of one of the stories told by the Bible's Book of Genesis. The painting depicts Lot and his daughters on one side, and a great disaster and its spectators on the other. The canvas, painted by van Leyden when he was around fifteen years old, is fairly accurate with regard to the biblical story; it...