First mentioned in Nuremberg in 1523, Pencz was probably a pupil of Albrecht Dürer. Together with the Beham brothers, in 1525 he was banished from the city for spreading the radical social ideas of Thomas Müntzer. Around 1529 he lived in northern Italy and Venice. In 1532 he became city painter in Nuremberg, and in 1534 he was given numerous commissions for wall paintings in the Nuremberg house of Lienhard Hirschvogel. He journeyed to Italy a second time in 1539-1540, probably to Rome. After his return, Pencz became one of Nuremberg's leading portrait painters. Appointed court painter to Duke Albrecht of Prussia in 1550, he died on the journey to Königsberg. As an engraver, Pencz numbers along with the Beham brothers among the so-called Nuremberg 'Little Masters'. His work was influenced by the art of Dürer and by contemporary Italian painting and printmaking, especially that of Marcantonio Raimondi.
