LIMOUSIN (or LEONARD (c. 1577), French painter, the most famous of a family of seven Limoges enamel painters, was the son of a Limoges innkeeper. He was at the beginning of his career influenced by the German school— indeed, his earliest authenticated work, signed L. L. and dated 1532, is a series of eighteen plaques of the "Passion of the Lord," after Albrecht Dtirer, but this influence was counterbalanced by that of the Italian masters of the school of Fontainebleau, Primaticcio, Rosso, Giulio Romano and Solario, from whom he acquired his taste for arabesque ornament and for mythological subjects. Nevertheless the French tradition was sufficiently in grained in him to save him from becoming an imitator and from losing his personal style. 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 plaques depicting Diane de Poitiers in various characters,—plates, vases, ewers, and cups, besides decorative works for the royal palaces, for, though he is best known as an enameller distinguished for rich colour, and for graceful designs in grisaille on black or bright blue backgrounds, he also enjoyed a great reputation as an oil-painter. His last
signed works bear the date 1574, but the date of his death is un certain, though it could not have been later than the beginning of 1577. It is on record that he executed close upon two thousand enamels. He is best represented at the Louvre, which owns his two famous votive tablets for the Sainte Chapelle, each consisting of twenty-three plaques, signed L. L. and dated 1553 ; and many portraits. Other representative examples are at the Cluny and Limoges museums, and in the London collections.