Luca (born at Settignano in 1430; died there in 1495) is remembered as a sculptor and, above all, as an architect among the best of his time in Mantua and Tuscany. From 1450 he was in the service of Ludovico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and later of Federico I and Francesco II. He traveled to Milan, where in 1487 he was a guest of Gian Galeazzo Sforza; to Naples, where he drew up the designs for Castel Capuano; to Florence, where he advanced the work on the Brunelleschi-Schianta structures of Santa Maria del Fiore and Palazzo Pitti, and collaborated on the works at Palazzo Riccardi.
But the seat of his most intense activity remained Mantua. In this city his stylistic presence is evidenced by: the façade of the "Nova domus," the Clock Tower, the inner portico of the Palazzo di San Sebastiano, the tower-house of the Arrivabene family, the Palazzo Andreasi, the Palazzo Benzoni, the Palazzo del Broletto (a 13th-century building enlarged), the Palazzo Cadenazzi, the old hospital in Via Salita, the chapel of the Incoronata in the Cathedral (designed by Alberti), and some sections of the public porticoes. In the province of Mantua, the same artist is credited with the castle of Revere, with its most elegant portal, and the Gonzaga villas at Luzzara and Gonzaga. Other works by Luca are probably in Mantua: some marble pilasters and some fireplace lintels now preserved in the Ducal Palace; the fireplace and doors of the staircase of