Lot 1022 Dα

Orazio Samacchini is considered one of the most important proponents of Bolognese Mannerism. Both the Florentine artist Vasari and the Roman painters Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, with whom Samacchini collaborated on decorative paintings in the Apostolic Palace and the “Scala Regia” commissioned by Pope Pius IV in the earlier half of the 1560s, strongly influenced his style. Apart from this short period in Rome, he spent the majority of his career in Bologna.
The attribution to this painter, as well as the alternative title “The Madonna with the Veil” are thought to originate from the former director of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, Heinrich Zimmermann, from whom a fragmentary expertise for the work has survived. The panel, which appears to have been slightly truncated on the left, displays characteristic elements of Samacchini's style in the figural type, cool colour palette, and the shimmering green of the satin curtain.