Orazio Gentileschi

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Orazio Gentileschi
Portrait of Orazio Gentileschi (c. 1630) by Lucas Emil Vorsterman, for "The Iconography"
Born
Orazio Lomi Gentileschi

9 July 1563 (baptized)
Died7 February 1639
NationalityItalian
Known forPainting
MovementMannerism

Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) was an

Mannerist
style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other artists.

After 1600, he came under the influence of the more naturalistic style of

Marie de Medici. He spent the last part of his life at the court of Charles I of England and died in London. He was the father of the painter Artemisia Gentileschi
.

Life

Gentileschi was born in Tuscany, the son of a Florentine goldsmith called Giovanni Battista Lomi, and baptised at Pisa on 9 July 1563. He later took the name Gentileschi from an uncle with whom he lived after moving to Rome [1]: p.6  in either 1576 or 1578.[2]

Early years in Rome

Much of Gentileschi's early work in Rome was collaborative in nature.

San Giovanni in Laterano
.

Influence of Caravaggio

Danaë by Orazio Gentileschi

From around 1600, Gentileschi's style was transformed by his contact with Caravaggio

Mannerist
beginnings.

In 1611, Gentileschi collaborated with Tassi again, on works including the decorations of the Casino delle Muse. However, their association ended due to a dispute over money.[2] In 1612 he was again called to the Tribunal of Rome, this time to speak against Tassi, who was charged with the rape of his daughter Artemisia Gentileschi.

Details of Gentileschi's studio practice during this period have been preserved in the records of Tassi's trial. Following Caravaggio's lead, he often painted directly from models.[1]: p.10  One of the witnesses at the trial, Giovanni Molli, a 73-year-old pilgrim from Palermo, said that he had posed for several pictures around 1610–11, including a full length St Jerome.[1]: p.94  Gentileschi also made studies from life for later use: he seems to have based the head of Abraham in the Sacrifice of Isaac, painted in the early 1620s, on studies of Molli's head made more than ten years before.[1]: p.6 

Diana the Huntress by Orazio Gentileschi

Between around 1613 and 1619 he did much of his work for patrons in the Roman Marches, in the cities of Ancona and Fabriano.

Genoa

In 1621, Gentileschi moved to Genoa, at the invitation of Giovanni Antonio Sauli, who had previously commissioned works from his brother, Aurelio Lomi. Gentileschi's works for Sauli included a Magdalene, a Danäe and Lot and his Daughters. He found other patrons in the city, including Marcantonio Doria, for whom he carried out an elaborate scheme of frescoes of Old Testament subjects in a "casino" (since destroyed) in the grounds of his palace at Sampierdarena.[1]: p.167 

France and England

In the summer or autumn of 1624, Gentileschi left Genoa for

Palais du Luxembourg, and now in the collection of the Louvre.[1]
: p.203 

In 1626, Gentileschi, accompanied by his three sons,

Strand.[1]: p.225  He had already received a certain degree of royal patronage by the time of Buckingham's murder in April 1628, and all his commissions after this event came from the royal family.[1]
: p.223 

He was a favourite artist of Queen

Henrietta Maria, for whom he carried out the ceiling paintings at Queen's House, Greenwich (later transferred to Marlborough House, London).[1]: p.228  The paintings of his English period are more elegant, artificial and restrained than his previous works. They include two versions of The Finding of Moses, (1633) one of which was sent to Philip IV of Spain; previously assumed to have been a gift from Charles I, it is now known to have been sent on Gentileschi's own initiative.[5]

In England van Dyck made a drawing of Gentileschi for inclusion in his Iconographia, a series of portraits of the leading artists, statesmen, collectors and scholars of the time, which he intended to publish as a set of engravings.[6]

Gentileschi died in London in 7 February 1639, and was buried in the Queen's Chapel at Somerset House.[1]: p.228 

Works

  • Orazio Gentileschi
  • Assumption of the Virgin
    Assumption of the Virgin
  • David and Goliath
    David and Goliath
  • David Contemplating the Head of Goliath
    David Contemplating the Head of Goliath
  • Saint Mary Magdalen in Penitence
    Saint Mary Magdalen in Penitence
  • Cupid and Psyche
    Cupid and Psyche
  • The Lute Player
  • Young Woman Playing a Violin
    Young Woman Playing a Violin
  • Lot and His Daughters
  • Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
    Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
  • Portrait of a Young Woman as a Sibyl
    Portrait of a Young Woman as a Sibyl
  • Annunciation
  • Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
  • The Finding of Moses
    The Finding of Moses
  • Moses in the basket
    Moses in the basket
  • Susanna and the Elders
    Susanna and the Elders

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780300090772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  2. ^ a b c The Genius of Rome 1592-1693 2001, p. 378.
  3. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gentileschi, Artemisia and Orazio de' s.v. Orazio". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 602.
  4. .
  5. ^ Sale of the Century 2002, p. 217.
  6. ^ "Anthony van Dyck, Orazio Gentileschi, a portrait drawing". British Museum. Archived from the original on 22 August 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2012.

Sources

  • Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi (Exhibition catalogue). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2002.
  • The Genius of Rome 1592-1693 (Exhibition catalogue). London: Royal Academy of Arts. 2001.
  • Sale of the Century:Artistic Relations between Spain and Great Britain1604–1655. Yale University Press in Association with Museo Nacional del Prado. 2002.

External links