Orazio Samacchini (1532 - 1577) was an Italian Mannerist painter who worked mainly in his native Bologna, though he also painted in Rome, Parma and other cities of northern Italy. His work shows the shift from Renaissance classicism toward the more complex forms of late Mannerism.
He trained with Pellegrino Tibaldi and was a close friend of Lorenzo Sabbatini. His early works reflect the influence of Raphael, filtered through painters of the Bolognese School, with simple forms, clear colours and pure lines. In 1563 he took part in the decoration of the Vatican Belvedere and the Sala Regia, which gave his compositions greater complexity and more vigorous figures. His frescoes in Parma Cathedral, dated 1570 to 1577, show a knowledge of Michelangelo, and in Cremona and Città di Castello traces of the Parmesan school and of Federico Zuccari can be seen.
Among his notable works are the Marriage of the Virgin, the Crucifixion in Santa Maria dei Servi and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple at San Giacomo Maggiore. His legacy passed mainly through Giovanni Battista Tinti, and his influence is evident in Cesare Aretusi and Ercole Procaccini. In Spain, a large Baptism of Christ in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum was once attributed to Pedro de Campaña.
Works (3)
Oil on canvas painted in 1675 and attributed to the Bolognese painter Orazio Samacchini, with a mythological subject. The scene shows the episode from the Aeneid in which Mercury appears before Aeneas and orders him to leave Dido, queen of Carthage. Nude figures, a Cupid and a putto stand in the foreground, alongside a dog, a stool and a shoe, details that place the action in an interior setting. The record offers no further information about its commission or reception.
Oil on canvas dated 1570 by Orazio Samacchini. The painting brings together three sacred figures: Pope Silverius, Saint Catherine of Alexandria and a young Saint John the Baptist shown in glory. It is a sixteenth-century religious work, now held in the Ducal Palace in Mantua.
Where to see the work
- Louvre Museum Paris · 1
- Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres Chartres · 1
- Palazzo Ducale Mantua Mantua · 1