Lot 64: SINIBALDO SCORZA

(Voltaggio 1589-1631 Genoa)
Orpheus Charming the Animals with his Music.

Gouache on cream laid paper. 410x525 mm; 16 1/4x20 3/4 inches. Four pointed star with the letters CB watermark.

From his early training in Genoa, Scorza painted animals, flowers and landscapes in a manner that was based on copying Albrecht Dürer's prints. He also came under the influence of Flemish genre painters, such as Frans Snyders and his followers, whose works were acquired by wealthy Genoese collectors. Technically, Scorza's detailed style, with its realistic rendering of surface and texture, derived from Northern European painting and manuscript illumination.

Not surprisingly for an artist so interested in depictions of animals, Scorza painted the subject of the current work at least 10 times. At the end of his career, he experimented with etching and had a profound influence on the Genoese painter-printmaker Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.