Orazio Gentileschi

Bio

ORAZIO GENTILESCHI

Pisa 1563 – 1639 London

Orazio was the son of a Florentine goldsmith, Giovanni Battista Lomi. He, however, adopted the name of a maternal uncle in Rome. On the basis of two dissenting letters, he arrived in Rome in either 1576 or 1578. His first documented artistic activity is in assisting Cesare Nebbia in 1588-89, but little has survived of his early work and none of it is dated. Orazio appears to have been just another late mannerist painter working in Rome until he met Caravaggio. His friendship with Caravaggio is documented in the 1603 libel trial brought by Giovanni Baglione against them and their cronies Onorio Longhi and Filippo Trisegni. In that trial Caravaggio attempted to distance himself from Orazio, claiming that he had not spoken to him for at least three years. This was surely an exaggeration, since Orazio testified that within the past ten days Caravaggio had returned some studio props to him.

In the major works of his Roman period, such as The Baptism of Christ (c. 1600-05; Rome, Santa Maria della Pace), The Madonna in Glory (c. 1600-05; Turin, Santa Maria al Monte dei Cappuccini), The Circumcision (c. 1605; Ancona, Chiese della Gesù), Saint Francis Supported by an Angel (c. 1603; Museo del Prado), and David Contemplating the Head of Goliath (c. 1610, Rome, Galleria Spada), Orazio was able to merge Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro, realism and dramatic power with a formal elegance and lyrical wistfulness. His small works on copper from these years are also notable for their meticulous finish and exquisite rendering of natural light effects.

By 1604 Orazio was a member of the Accademia di San Luca and in 1605 he was elected to the society of the Virtuosi al Pantheon. From 1611 he collaborated with Agostino Tassi on projects that included work in the Palazzo del Quirinale and the decoration of the Casino delle Muse (now Rome, Galleria Pallavicini). However, their association floundered in 1612 over disputes about payment, culminating in Orazio’s suite against Tassi for the rape of his daughter, Artemisia . After this Orazio chose to work increasingly outside of Rome and between 1613 and 1615 he received a number of commissions in Fabriano. In 1621 he travelled to Genoa at the invitation of Giovanni Antonio Sauli. He also worked for Carlo Emmanuele I, Duke of Savoy and Maria de’ Medici in Paris in 1624. By November 1626 he had settled in London as court painter to Charles I, remaining there until his death despite attempts to gain employment at the Florentine court. It was Queen Henrietta Maria who gave Orazio his most important commission in London, the ceiling of the Great Hall of the Queen’s House at Greenwich. As Orazio moved north, his painting became increasingly suave and formulaic, brilliant and superficial: a style appropriate to the courtly society he served.