Orazio Gentileschi | Baroque painter

Orazio Gentileschi, original name Orazio Lomi(born 1562, Pisa [Italy] - died February 7, 1639, London, England), Italian painter, one of the more important painters who came under the influence of Caravaggio and who was one of the more successful interpreters of his style.

His daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi, who was trained in his studio, also became a noteworthy Baroque artist.

Gentileschi first studied with his half brother Aurelio Lomi. At some time in the late 1570s or early 1580s he went to Rome, where, with the landscape painter Agostino Tassi, he painted frescoes in churches of Santa Maria Maggiore, San Giovanni Laterano, and Santa Nicola in Carcere from about 1590-1600, executing figures for Tassi’s landscapes.

In the first years of the 17th century Gentileschi came under the influence of Caravaggio, also in Rome at the time.

His paintings of this period-e.g., David and Goliath (1610?) and Saint Cecilia and an Angel (c. 1617/1618 and c. 1621/1627; with Giovanni Lanfranco)-employ Caravaggio’s use of dramatic, unconventional gesture and monumental composition, his uncompromising realism and contemporary representation of figure types, and to some extent his strong chiaroscuro, or light-and-dark contrast.

Shortly afterward Gentileschi developed a Tuscan lyricism foreign to Caravaggio’s almost brutal vitality, a lighter palette, and a more precise treatment reminiscent of his Mannerist beginnings.

From 1621-1623 Gentileschi was in Genoa, where he painted his masterpiece, The Annunciation (1623), a work of consummate grace that shows a weakening of Caravaggio’s influence.

The composition still depends on dramatic gestures, here of the Virgin and the angel, and there is still a strong immediacy to the incident and an absence of idealization.

The mood, however, is more restrained and lyrical than in his earlier works, the colours are light, and the earlier chiaroscuro is absent.

After a stay in France, Gentileschi traveled to England in 1626 at the invitation of King Charles I.

He remained there as court painter for the rest of his life, his work becoming increasingly conventional and decorative.

His last major work is an ambitious series of ceiling paintings, which he worked on with his daughter, Artemisia, for the Queen’s House in Greenwich; painted in 1638, the ceiling panels have since been removed to Marlborough House, London. | © Encyclopædia Britannica

Gentiléschi, Orazio Lomi detto il. - Pittore (Pisa 1563 - Londra 1639).

Allievo del fratello Aurelio, a diciassette anni si stabilì a Roma presso uno zio, del quale assunse il cognome. Operò a Roma, a Farfa e nelle Marche fino al 1621, quando si recò a Genova e poi a Torino.

Fu quindi chiamato in Francia da Maria de' Medici e infine in Inghilterra da Carlo I.

Dipinse affreschi nelle chiese romane di S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Silvestro in capite e nel casino delle Muse, eretto nel 1603 dal cardinale Scipione Borghese presso il palazzo Rospigliosi; a Sampierdarena decorò il casino di Marcantonio Colonna.

Dipinse numerosi quadri d'altare per chiese di Roma, delle Marche, di Genova, ecc. Formatosi in ambiente manierista toscano, sensibile ai modi di A. Elsheimer, a Roma fu subito attratto dalla novità stilistica del Caravaggio.

Del luminismo caravaggesco, tuttavia, il G. si valse per affinare la sua ricerca formale e coloristica caratteristica per la nitidezza del segno ed i freddi accordi del colore.

Tra le opere più importanti: per il periodo romano, Loth e le figlie (Londra, coll. Spencer-Churchill); per il periodo genovese, l'Annunciazione nella chiesa di S. Siro e il Sacrificio d'Isacco (coll. Durazzo Adorno); per il periodo francese il Riposo in Egitto (Louvre); per il periodo inglese Giuseppe e la moglie di Putifarre (Hampton Court).

Quasi dimenticato dalla critica dei suoi tempi, il G. è oggi considerato una delle più singolari personalità artistiche del Seicento italiano. | © Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana