From Turin he proceeded to Paris, at the invitation of the queen-mother, where he found plenty of employment for about two years, and gained a new patron in George Villiers, duke of Buckingham. In 1626 he came to England, it is said at the invitation of Vandyck, though he may have come at the request of Buckingham, for whom he painted a ‘Magdalen in a Grotto,’ a ‘Holy Family,’ and a ceiling at York House in the Strand. Vandyck appears to have esteemed Gentileschi highly, and drew his portrait, which he had engraved by Vorsterman for his ‘Centum Icones’ (the original drawing is in the print room at the British Museum). Charles I treated Gentileschi with great honour, furnished a house for him at great cost, and gave him an annuity of 100l. Though over sixty years of age, he painted assiduously for his royal patron, especially at Greenwich Palace. Most of the pictures he painted for the king were dispersed after Charles's execution. Some are at Marlborough House, one of ‘Lot and his daughters’ was engraved by L. Vorsterman, another of ‘The Repose in Egypt’ is in the Louvre, and others are to be found at Madrid and Vienna. At Hampton Court there are two pictures by him, formerly in James II's collection, viz. ‘A Sibyl’ and ‘Joseph and Potiphar's wife.’ Gentileschi's patronage by the king and Buckingham excited the jealousy of Sir Balthasar Gerbier [q. v.], who seems to have claimed a monopoly of trading on their prodigal generosity to foreign artists. Like Gerbier, Gentileschi was employed on missions of secret diplomacy. Gerbier attacked Gentileschi in many ways, but does not appear to have shaken his position at court, as Gentileschi continued to reside in England up to his death in 1647, in his eighty-fourth year. He was buried in the chapel at Somerset House. He sometimes tried portrait-painting in England, but without much success. Gentileschi brought with him to England a large family, including three sons, Francesca, Giulio, and Marco, and a daughter Artemisia [q. v.] Francesco and Giulio were sent on picture-dealing errands to Italy, and after their father's death Francesco became a painter at Genoa, where he died about 1660; Marco was one of the suite of the Duchess of Buckingham at York House.
[Baldinucci's Notizie dei Professori del Disegno, iii. 710; Rosini's Storia della Pittura Italiana; Lanzi's Hist. of Painting in Italy; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painters, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1629–31; Salvetti Correspondence (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. app. x. pt. i. p. 97); Sainsbury's Original Papers relating to Rubens; Fine Arts Quarterly Review, iv. 413; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 121; Law's Cat. of the Pictures at Hampton Court; Vertue's Cat. of King Charles I's Collection; Mariette's Abecedario.]
GENTILI, ALBERICO (1552–1608), civilian, and one of the earliest systematic writers upon international law, the second son of Matteo Gentili, by his wife Lucrezia, daughter of Diodoro Petrelli, was born 14 Jan. 1552, at Sanginesio, an ancient walled town of the march of Ancona, where his father was a physician. The family had long been favourably known throughout the marches for attainments in law and medicine. Matteo had studied medicine at Pisa, and was also a man of wide general culture. Alberico was sent to the university of Perugia, where he attained the degree of doctor of civil law on 22 Sept. 1572. Two months later he was elected ‘prætor,’ or judge, of Ascoli, but shortly afterwards settled in his native town, where he filled various responsible offices, and in particular was entrusted with the revision of its statutes. Both father and son belonged to a confraternity suspected (no doubt justly) of meeting for the discussion of opinions hostile to the Roman church. The inquisition was upon the track of the heretics, and Matteo was obliged to fly from his country, taking with him Alberico and a younger son, Scipio, destined to become famous as a teacher of Roman law at Altdorf. At their first halting-place, Laibach, Matteo, doubtless through the influence of his brother-in-law, Nicolo Petrelli, a jurist high in favour with the court, was appointed chief physician for the duchy of Carniola. In the meantime the papal authorities had excommunicated the fugitives, and soon procured their expulsion from Austrian territory. Early in 1580 Alberico set out for England, preceded by a reputation which procured him offers of professorships at Heidelberg and at Tübingen, where Scipio was left to commence his university studies. Alberico reached London in August, with introductions to Battista Castiglioni. He soon became acquainted with Dr. Tobie Matthew, dean of Christ Church, and so with the Earl of Leicester, who, as chancellor of Oxford, furnished him with a letter which was publicly read in the convocation of the university on 14 Dec., recommending him as a learned exile for religion, and requesting his incorporation. On 14 Jan. 1581 Gentili was accordingly incorporated from Perugia as a D.C.L., so gaining the right of teaching law, which he first exercised in St. John's College. Contributions for his support were made also by Magdalen and Corpus Colleges, and from the university chest. He lodged at New Inn Hall, for many
