He leans on a rock and raises his hand.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Temptation of Christ
Lucas van Leyden · 1518
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Lucas van Leyden engraved this plate in 1518; the date is at the bottom. It is a quiet scene of two figures in a rocky place, with a castle far behind.
Jesus leans on a rock, one hand raised. Before him the tempter kneels, disguised as an old man in a long hooded robe with a walking stick, and holds out a stone.
From the text
- Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted (Matthew 4:1)
- “tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3)
- “Man shall not live on bread alone” (Matthew 4:4)
The artist’s own
- The tempter disguised as an old hermit or pilgrim — a common picture in prints of the time
- A castle and towers on the hill
Details
Jesus
The tempter
Disguised as an old man in a hooded robe.
The stone
He holds out a stone.
The castle
Towers on the hill behind.
Lucas van Leyden, Netherlandish, 1494–about 1533. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Gift of Ralph King, 1925.28) · Engraving · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).