Dutch engraver and painter Lucas van Leyden was 14 years old, when he started creating his first serious works raising doubts about his date of birth among some researchers with his highly professional plates made in 1508.

As a child, Lucas was trained by his father, Huygh Jacobszoon, and later moved on to study under Cornelis Engelbrechtsz, a draftsman and painter. Lucas made his first engraving at the age of nine and sold his first painting at 12 for a dozen golden florins — the buyer paid one florin for each year of the artist’s life.

For a long time, Van Leyden engraved mainly on copper using a burin and was a master of hatching. His engravings are filled with tactile sensations: using smooth, dashed, successive lines, he was able to convey the texture of fabric and wood. In terms of the variety of hatching techniques and chiaroscuro effects on copper plates, van Leyden surpassed one of the best engravers of his time — Albrecht Dürer. Dürer met van Leyden in Antwerp in 1521 and spoke warmly of him.

By 1530, during the later period of his creative work, the artist developed a keen interest in Italian mannerism, the movement whose followers disengaged themselves from direct, clear and balanced means of expression. It was characterized by bright colours, broken lines, twisted poses, elongated faces and figures, pronounced eroticism and overloaded compositions. However, Dutch mannerism largely remained a secondary one, as Romanist artists looked up to Raphael school followers. But van Leyden found his own way. Lucas retained his earlier style adding mannerist naked bodies of ancient heroes and gods to his engravings.
The engraving “Mars and Venus” was made by Lucas van Leyden in a horizontal format using a burin. According to the story, Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, calms down and disarms Mars, the god of war, she is being helped by Cupid who has put down his bow. Their actions show the struggle of the sensual with militancy and cruelty. The sword cuts the engraving in two — the characters have just started arguing, and who of them will prevail is unknown. The image is conveyed using lines of uniform depth and same length.