Orazio Gentileschi

Orazio Gentileschi (ca1585-ca1640), who was born in Pisa, moved to Rome at the age of seventeen to work for three Popes, Sixtus V, Clement VIII, and Paul V. He was much influenced by his younger friend, Caravaggio. Though much of his work has the expected religious themes, he also painted realistic scenes and portraits, sometimes using his daughter Artemisia as model. She herself became one of the earliest noted women painters. In later life Gentikleschi lived in Ancona and Genoa before moving to France where he in 1626 he became Court painter to King Charles I. Shortly before his death he moved to London.