**Orazio Samacchini** (also spelled Sammachini; 20 December 1532 – 12 June 1577) was an Italian painter of the late Renaissance and Mannerist style, born and died in Bologna. He worked primarily in his native city but also received important commissions in Rome and Parma.

Samacchini trained under Pellegrino Tibaldi, though some early sources also link him to Ercole Procaccini. His early work shows the clear influence of Raphael and Prospero Fontana, evident in pieces such as the *Marriage of the Virgin* (c. 1555–1560) for San Giuseppe in Bologna. In 1563 he traveled to Rome, where he contributed to the decoration of the Vatican Belvedere and the Sala Regia under Taddeo Zuccari. This Roman experience introduced stronger Michelangelesque elements into his art, visible in the *Crucifixion* (1568) for Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna.

He maintained a close friendship with fellow Bolognese painter Lorenzo Sabbatini and later absorbed additional influences from Federico Zuccaro, Giorgio Vasari, Parmigianino, and Correggio. Major commissions included frescoes of *Virtues, Prophets, and Angels* in Sant’Abbondio, Cremona; altarpieces for San Giacomo Maggiore, the church of Corpus Domini, and Santa Maria Maggiore (or Della Vita) in Bologna; and extensive fresco work in Parma Cathedral (1570–1577), for which he also left written instructions. His final altarpiece, the *Virgin and Child with Saints* (1576–1577) for Santa Maria Maggiore in Bologna, successfully synthesized these varied sources.

Samacchini’s drawings and paintings are preserved in major collections, including the Prado, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Städel Museum. Though his career was relatively short, his synthesis of Emilian and Roman Mannerist traditions contributed to the artistic environment of late-sixteenth-century Bologna that would later nurture the Carracci family and the emergence of the Bolognese school.