Artists
Orazio Gentileschi
- Country:
- Italy
- Birth year:
- 1563
- Death year:
- 1639
Orazio Gentileschi (c. 1563 Pisa-c. 1639 London), whose real name was Orazio Gentileschi Lomi, was one of the most significant Cravaggisti of his time. Born into a family of artist, he was trained in the Florentine Mannerist style of Agnolo Bronzino and Jacopo Pontormo. At the beginning of the 1580s he went to Rome, where he worked as a fresco painter in the Vatican. Around 1600 he worked as a panel painter in the artistic circle of Caravaggio. In the early 1620s he was active in Genoa and Paris, and from 1626 began working at the english court of Charles (1600-1649). In his artwork Gentileschi combines tuscan tradition with Caravaggism and develops a fine expressive style. His later works are distinguished by their balanced colour schemes and composition, as well as by their brilliant technique. Other works by the artist include The Birth of Christ, Santa Maria della Pace, Rome; St. Cecilia, c. 1610, Galleria Nazionale d' Arte Antica, Rome; and The Lute Player, c. 1626, The Natinal Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.