Orazio Gentileschi

The painter Orazio Gentileschi had moved to Rome in the late 1570s or early 1580s and become associated with the landscape-painter Agostino Tassi, executing the figures for the landscape backgrounds of this artist in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, and it is said in the great hall of the Quirinal Palace, although by some authorities the figures in the last-named building are ascribed to Giovanni Lanfranco.

He had worked also in the churches of Santa Maria Maggiore, San Nicola in Carcere, Santa Maria della Pace and San Giovanni in Laterano.

However, Gentileschi's main influence starting from the early seventeenth century is Caravaggio, also in Rome at this time, whose style he is one of the best followers of.

Sharing with the former shadowy characteristics, he has taken part in several adventures in Rome's streets.

Giovanni Baglione had in late August of 1603 filed a suit for libel against Caravaggio, Gentileschi, Ottavio Leoni, and Filipo Trisegni in connection with some unflattering poems circulated among the artistic community of Rome over the preceding summer.

Caravaggio’s testimony during the trial as recorded in court documents is one of the few insights into his thoughts about the subject of art and his contemporaries.

Gentileschi's best works are Saints Cecilia and Valerian, in the Galleria Borghese of Rome; David after the death of Goliath (circa 1610), in the Palazzo Doria, Genoa; and some works in the royal palace, Turin, noticeable for vivid and uncommon coloring.

Artemisia Gentileschi, born in Rome on July 8, 1593, as the eldest child of the Tuscan painter Orazio Gentileschi, had been introduced to painting in her father's workshop, showing much more talent than her brothers, who worked alongside her.

She had learned drawing, how to mix color and how to paint.

Since her father's style had taken inspiration from Caravaggio during that period, her style had been just as heavily influenced in turn, but her approach to subject matter is different from her father's, as her paintings are highly naturalistic, where Orazio's are idealized.

The first work of the young seventeen-year-old Artemisia (even if many at the time suspected that she was helped by her father) had been the Susanna e i Vecchioni (Susanna and the Elders) (1610, Schönborn collection in Pommersfelden).

The picture shows how Artemisia has assimilated the realism of Caravaggio without being indifferent to the language of the Bologna school (which had had Annibale Carracci among its major artists).

It is one of the few Susanna paintings showing the two men planning their sexual harassment.

It is likely that Artemisia had been sexually harassed and has painted Susanna as a reflection.

Artemisia's Gentilischi's Giuditta che decapita Oloferne (Judith beheading Holofernes) (1612–1613), displayed in the Capodimonte Museum of Naples, is impressive for the violence portrayed.

She had in 1612 been denied access to the all-male professional academies for art, her early talent notwithstanding.

Her father had been working with Agostino Tassi to decorate the vaults of Casino della Rose inside the Pallavicini Rospigliosi Palace in Rome, so Orazio had hired the painter to tutor his daughter privately.

During this tutelage, Tassi had raped Artemisia.

Another man, Cosimo Quorlis, had helped Tassi with the rape.

After the initial rape, Artemisia had continued to have sexual relations with Tassi, with the expectation that they were going to be married.

However, Tassi had reneged on his promise to marry Artemisia after he heard the rumor that she was having an affair with another man.

Quorlis had threatened that if he could not have her, he would publicly humiliate her.

Orazio had pressed charges against Tassi only after he learned that Artemisia and Tassi were not going to be married.

Orazio also claimed that Tassi had stolen a painting of Judith from the Gentileschi household.

The major issue of this trial was the fact that Tassi had deflowered Artemisia.

If Artemisia had not been a virgin before Tassi raped her, the Gentileschis would not have been able to press charges.

In the ensuing seven-month trial, it is discovered that Tassi had planned to murder his wife, had enjoined in adultery with his sister-in-law, and had planned to steal some of Orazio’s paintings.

During the trial, Artemisia had been given a gynecological examination and had been tortured using thumbscrews.

At the end of the trial Tassi had been sentenced to one year's imprisonment.

The trial subsequently will influence the feminist view of Artemisia Gentileschi during the late twentieth century.

One month after the trial, in order to restore his daughter's honor, Orazio had arranged for her to marry Pierantonio Stiattesi, a modest artist from Florence.

King Charles I sees art as a way of promoting his grandiose view of the monarchy.

The most passionate and generous collector of art among the British monarchs, he is able in 1626 to persuade the Italian Baroque painter Orazio Gentileschi, one of more important painters influenced by Caravaggio (the so-called Caravaggisti), to settle in England, later to be joined by his daughter Artemesia and some of his sons.

Gentileschi is to remain in England for the rest of his life.

His works will become increasingly conventional and decorative, but will be appreciated by the local aristocracy for their classicism.

Van Dyck will include him in his portraits of a hundred illustrious men.