One of the "Little Masters," who made tiny, intricate, and influential prints, Georg Pencz's works always reflected the influence of Albrecht Dürer, whose Nuremberg workshop he entered in 1523. Pencz also kept up with current trends in Italy, varying his style throughout his career. After being banished from Nuremberg in 1525 along with the other "godless painters" Hans Sebald Beham and Barthel Beham for asserting disbelief in baptism, Christ, or transubstantiation, Pencz probably went to northern Italy. Within months, the three were pardoned, and Pencz became Nuremberg's city painter in 1532. He often painted large-scale ceiling decorations on canvas. About 1539 Pencz returned to Italy, visiting Rome for the first time. Back in Nuremberg in 1540, he earned his greatest success as a portraitist. Ten years later Albert, duke of Prussia, named him court painter, but Pencz died in Leipzig on the way to begin his new career. Kurt Locher listed Pencz as one of "the major talents of the younger generation [along with] Barthel and Sebald Beham." In addition to his paintings, Pencz executed many engravings, most quite small in size, and designed woodcuts and stained glass. (Based in part upon the Getty Museum biography)

Select Bibliography: Robert A. Koch, The Illustrated Bartsch Vol. 16: Binck, Pencz, Aldegrever (NY: Abaris Books, n.d.); David Landau, Catalogo Completo dell'Opera Grafica di Georg Pencz (Milano: Salamon e Agustoni, 1978); Ellen Schultz, ed. Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg 13000-1550 (NY: Metroplitan Museum of Art, 1986); H. Zschelletzschky, Die "Drei gottlosen Maler" von Nürnberg. Sebald Beham, Barthel Beham und Georg Pencz. Historische Grundlagen und ikonographische Probleme ihrer Graphik zu Reformations- und Bauernkriegszeit (Leipzig, 1975).