Lucas Kilian was born in Augsburg in 1579 and died there in 1637. He was apprenticed to his stepfather, Dominicus Custos, an engraver from Antwerp. His earliest independent print shows the influence of the Netherlands, which was to be lasting: it is a large view of the Augustus Fountain in Augsburg (1599; Hollstein, no. 101), after a drawing by Frans Aspruck, exhibiting the type of display work brought by Italian-trained Dutch artists to Augsburg. In 1601 Kilian himself travelled to Italy. He went from town to town, mainly making reproductive engravings. In Venice (1602–3) he copied works by Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and Palma Vecchio.  Some of these prints are the only records of now untraced paintings. From this time he developed a ‘painterly manner’ (according to Wengenmayr), achieving fine gradations of light and shade with richly varied use of the burin.