The author of the picture The Singer is unknown. Art experts from the Tambov Regional Ethnography Museum think that the portrait was painted by an unknown artist of the Caravaggio school. Caravaggio was a famous Italian artist, reformer of the European art school of XVII century.
Experts of the Regional Picture Gallery believe that the author of the painting was not a student of Caravaggio, but an artist from his circle of masters. The majority of art experts suppose that ‘The Singer’ — is an artwork of the famous Florentine artist Allessandro Allori.

In 1554-1556 Allori worked as an artist in Rome, after 1560 he served the court of Medici, the ruling family in Florence. He studied art under the guidance of his uncle Agnolo Torrie Bronzino, and, just as his uncle, he painted frescoes, religious and mythological images, created portraits and sketches for tapestry.

He was also influenced by another well-known artist — Michelangelo, whose works he saw in Rome. Researchers of Allori’s works point out that his work Pearl fishing, dated 1571, was greatly influenced by the great master. Allori employed the manner and technique he learned from his teachers: relief figures, like the images on Michelangelo’s frescoes, blending with elegant forms, as in Bronzino’s paintings. After the death of his uncle in 1572, the artist started signing his works with the name Alessandro Bronzino Allori.

The Singer depicts a man, holding music notes in his hands. Alessandro Allori painted the portrait in oil paints. The portrait is presented in a cold and formal manner. The artist demonstrates different degrees of shadow and light, so that the forms and texture are almost tangible and touchable.

This work closely resembles his uncle’s latest works in the style of mannerism — which is characterised by a high degree of artificiality, as opposed to the works of the Renaissance period.

For many years it remained a mystery which musical piece was hidden in the notes. In 2016 the experts of the Tambov museums received a letter from a lady, living in Moscow, who decoded the notes. In her opinion they are the notes of a madrigal of an unknown artist of ‘Madonna, i priedh miei’.