Luca Penni (1500/1504–1557)

• Was an Italian painter.
• Penni was born in Florence.
• He and his painter brothers Gianfrancesco and Bartolommeo were born into a family of weavers.
• He seems to have trained under Raphael in Florence and Rome.
• In the late 1520s, Penni worked with his brother-in-law Perino del Vaga in Genoa.
• Luca Penni, Rosso Fiorentino and Francesco Primaticcio were summoned by Francis I of France to France.
• They gave his Palace of Fontainebleau a daring, delicate and sophisticated Italian Renaissance style.
• Penni formed part of Primaticcio's team decorating the pavillon des Poêles and the galerie d’Ulysse.
• He is cited in French royal accounts between 1537 and 1540 as one of the French court's top artists.

• In about 1546 Luca may have left France in the company of Léon Davent, as a number of Davent's prints dated 1546 or 1547 are based on designs by Penni.

• He was nicknamed Le Romain (the Roman).

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