Orazio Gentileschi

1565 - 1640
Italy

Orazio Gentileschi (Orazio Lomi) was born in Pisa, where he first studied with his brother Aurelio, a pupil of Il Bronzino. Gentileschi went to Rome at the age of seventeen and worked for Popes Sixtus V, Clement VIII, and Paul V. Most important for Gentileschi's formation as an artist was the presence in Rome of Caravaggio, who received his first commission in the Holy City in 1590.

Although Gentileschi was older than his close friend Caravaggio, it seems that the younger man exerted the stronger influence. Gentileschi's realistic paintings have the lyricism, the broad treatment of religious subjects, and the humanistic approach found in Caravaggio, as well as a clean and elegant line, a basic simplicity, and a warm satisfying color.

Gentileschi was in Ancona from 1610 until 1620 and was influenced by the German landscape artist Elsheimer. From Ancona Gentileschi went to Genoa where he met Van Dyck and worked for the Duke of Savoy. Maria de'Medici called him to France in 1625 and in 1626 he went to become court painter to King Charles I, remaining in that country until his death in London at an indeterminate date. His influence extended not only to his daughter Artemisia, who in turn influenced Neapolitan artists with her brilliant color and dramatic style, but also to European genre painting of the later seventeenth century.