63 - Francesco Maffei (Vicenza, approximately 1605 – Padua, 1660)

Francesco Maffei (Vicenza, approximately 1605 – Padua, 1660) The Annunciation, 1650/60 Oil on canvas 73 x 97 cm The work is published in P. Rossi, *Maffei*, entry 207 and photo 178, dated between the late 1650s and early 1660s Maffei received his training within the Maganza circle, through which he indirectly absorbed the teachings of Jacopo Bassano and his school. His first confirmed work dates to 1626 and is located in Vicenza, while around 1638 he was in Venice, where he completed Sante Peranda’s *Paradiso*. In Venice, he had the opportunity to appreciate and internalize the teachings of the great Mannerists, especially Tintoretto and Veronese. Furthermore, his stay in Venice brought him into contact with the naturalism introduced by the “outsiders,” such as Fetti, Liss, and, in particular, Strozzi. The result is a distinctive pictorial language, composed of both similar and divergent stylistic elements blended into a typically Baroque style: sensual, macabre, bizarre, and dizzying—a manner that Boschini described as “grand and bizarre.” Later in his career, he worked between Venice and the Venetian hinterland, enjoying success in Vicenza, Brescia, Rovigo, and Padua—the city to which he moved in his later years. Francesco Maffei (Vicenza, approximately 1605 – Padua, 1660) The Annunciation, 1650/60 Oil on canvas 73 x 97 cm The work is published in P. Rossi, *Maffei*, entry 207 and photograph 178, dated between the late 1650s and early 1660s