Orazio Gentileschi

Background

Gentileschi was born in Tuscany, Italy, on July 9, 1563. He was the son of a Florentine goldsmith Giovanni Battista Lomi. Orazio Gentileschi had two elder brothers, Baccio and Aurelio, both were painters.

Career

At the age of thirteen, Gentileschi went to Rome, under the papacy of Gregory XIII. There he produced the figures for Agostino Tassi's landscapes in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, and perhaps in the great hall of the Quirinal Palace, although some people attribute these figures to Giovanni Lanfranco. Besides, later he worked in the churches of San Nicola in Carcere, San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore, and Santa Maria della Pace.

Around 1600 Orazio Gentileschi's style were apparently influenced by the Caravaggio style. Caravaggio, an Italian painter, was several years his junior and had a great impact on the painter's art. When Caravaggio left Rome in 1606, Gentileschi was able to develop a more personal Tuscan lyricism, characterized by lighter colours and precision in detail, reminiscent of his Mannerist beginnings.

In 1611, Gentileschi collaborated with Agostino Tassi, creating a number of works including the decorations of the Casino delle Muse. However, their collaboration ended up because of money. In 1612 Orazio Gentileschi was called to the Tribunal of Rome to speak against Tassi, who was accused of the rape of repeatedly ravaging his daughter Artemisia Gentileschi and reneging on a promise of marriage. Following that public scandal, Orazio Gentileschi sought work outside Rome. He had subsequent commissions in Fabriano, beginning with the Chapel of the Crucifixion in San Venanzo. He created frescoes in the chapel during 1616-1617. Later he made a trip to Florence, where Artemisia was then living.

In 1621 Orazio Gentileschi was invited by a Genoese nobleman, Giovanni Battista Sauli, to work for him. Since then Gentileschi became primarily known as a painter for courts and nobility. He found a number of other patrons in the city, including Marcantonio Doria, for whom he worked out an elaborate scheme of frescoes of Old Testament subjects in a "casino" in the grounds of his palace at Sampierdarena. Later he moved to Paris. Although Gentileschi was the leading Italian painter in France, he stayed there only until 1626. That year he left for a post of court painter to Charles I in London, living there until his death in 1639. One of his first major artworks there was a large ceiling painting of Apollo and the Muses for Buckingham's newly rebuilt London home, York House, in the Strand. His paintings of the English period were more graceful, artificial and restrained than his previous works.

Achievements

• Orazio Gentileschi enjoyed special prominence among the many Caravaggesque painters active in the first two decades of the seventeenth century as the first to respond to the new style. Moreover, he was one of many artists, who developed his individual style.
  
  Today, many of his works are housed throughout Europe and the United States. His ceiling painting of the Queen's House in Greenwich is nowadays at Marlborough House in London and his The Finding of Moses, also from the Queen's House, is on loan to the Gallery.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Young Woman Playing a Violin

  • The Annunciation

  • Madonna and Child

  • Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

  • Madonna and Child in The Vision of St Francesca Romana

  • The Lute Player

  • Saint Cecilia with an Angel

  • Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

  • Lot and His Daughters

  • Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes

  • Portrait of a Young Woman as a Sibyl

  • Madonna

  • Public Felicity Triumphant over Dangers

  • Saint Mary Magdalen in Penitence

  • Two Women with a Mirror

  • Madonna and Child in a Landscape

  • St. Francis Supported by an Angel

  • Madonna with Child

  • Mary Magdalene

  • Saint Christopher

  • Danae

  • Rest on the Flight to Egypt

  • Saints Cecilia, Valerianus and Tiburtius

  • Cupid and Psyche

  • Finding of Moses

  • A Sibyl

  • David Contemplating the Head of Goliath

  • Die Wundenpflege des heiligen Sebastian

  • The Finding of Moses

  • Fragment einer Maria

Connections

Orazio Gentileschi was married to Prudentia Gentileschi. The couple produced five children, Artemisia, Giovanni Battista, Francesco, Giulio and Giovanni Battista.

Father:

Giovanni Battista Lomi

Spouse:

Prudentia Gentileschi

Brother:

Baccio Lomi

Brother:

Aurelio Lomi

Daughter:

Artemisia Gentileschi

Son:

Giovanni Battista Gentileschi

Son:

Francesco Gentileschi

Son:

Giulio Gentileschi

Son:

Giovanni Battista Gentileschi

References

• Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi
• Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi: Between Paris and London
• Orazio Gentileschi at the Court of Charles I
• Orazio Gentileschi and the Poetic Tradition of Caravaggesque Painting
• Orazio Gentileschi and the Poetic Tradition of Caravaggesque Painting