Léonard Limosin (ca. 1505–1575/1577)

• Was a French painter, the most famous of a family of seven Limoges enamel painters.
• He is supposed to have studied under Nardon Pénicaud.
• His earliest authenticated work, signed L. L. and dated 1532, is a series of eighteen plaques of the Passion of the Lord, after Albrecht Dürer.
• In 1530 he entered the service of Francis I as painter and varlet de chambre, a position which he retained under Henry II.
• For both these monarchs he executed many portraits in enamel—among them quite a number of plaques depicting Diane de Poitiers in various characters, plates, vases, ewers, and cups.
• His last signed works bear the date 1574.
• The date of his death is uncertain, though it could not have been later than the beginning of 1577.
• It is on record that he executed close upon two thousand enamels.
• In the collection of Signor Rocchi, in Rome, is an exceptionally interesting plaque representing Frances I consulting a fortuneteller.
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