luca penni (1500 - 1556)
Luca Penni was an Italian painter, draughtsman and printmaker, nicknamed Romano (Roman).
Luca was the younger brother of Raphael's first assistant, Giovanni Francesco Penni (1488/1496-1528), and must have originally studied under his brother in the environment of Raphael's studio. After Raphael's death, Luca worked in Genoa, then traveled to England, in the service of King Henry VIII, before leaving for France around 1530.
At Fontainebleau, together with French painters, Penni worked on the decoration of the royal palace and became one of the most respected artists there. His work had a marked influence on sixteenth-century French painting and was reproduced by Italian engravers. Penni also produced many designs for engravers including Leon Davent, Etienne Delon and Giorgio Ghisi, as well as for tapestries and stained glass.
The work of the first generation of Italian masters in France, mostly pupils and followers of Raphael, is called the "first school of Fontainebleau", and Luca Penni is a prominent representative of it.
Giorgio Ghisi was an Italian engraver from Mantova who also worked in Antwerp and France. He made both engravings and damascened metalwork, although only two surviving examples of the latter are known.
