Apollo and Galatea in a Landscape with Neptune and Three Nymphs

Formerly considered as a work by Niccolò dell'Abate (Cleveland 1981, no. 83), Jacob Bean published this drawing in 1982, more generally as by an anonymous 16th century Emilian artist (Bean 1982, no. 290). Though somewhat timid in execution, this drawing seems closest to the style of the Bolognese painter Orazio Samacchini, as suggested by the notes on the modern mount written by Mario di Giampaolo, Marzia Faietti, and Timothy Clifford. While endorsed by Carmen C. Bambach, the attribution to Samacchini was rejected by Babette Bohnn and Jak Katalan, who also thought more generally of an artist active at Fontainebleau (notes on the mount). In 1979, Philip Pouncey recognized that a drawing in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 10494) attributed to Samacchini features the same composition of Apollo, Galatea and her Nymphs, with slight modifications (especially in the pose of Galatea). Pouncey noted that the composition, although drawn by Samacchini, had been strongly inspired by a prototype of Niccolò dell'Abate.
While the two drawings are very similar in size (Louvre: 19.8 x 24.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art: 18.0 x 20.5 cm), they are somewhat different in style. The sheet in the Louvre seems bolder and more expressive, while the one in the Museum is more delicate and is defined by neat outlines in pen and ink.
(C.C.B. / F.R.)