Orazio Lomi Gentileschi was a prominent Italian painter during the Baroque period. In recent years his daughter, Artemesia, has outshone her father in popularity and importance. His style is highly evocative of Caravaggio, and he was known as one of those who followed that painter, also known as the "Caravaggisti." Little is known of his birth and childhood, but the record shows that he was born at Pisa and began his study of art under his older half-brother. By the late 1570s he was living in Rome, working with the painter Agostino Tassi, who specialized in landscape. During this period Gentileschi worked in a number of Roman churches, providing frescoes and paintings.

Like his hero Caravaggio, Gentileschi had something of a bad reputation. He was involved in a number of illegal activities in the streets of Rome. He served as a witness during the famous Caravaggio trial in 1603. He returned to court in 1612 to testify against Tassi for raping his daughter, Artemesia. When Caravaggio fled Rome later, Gentileschi was no longer so strongly influenced by Caravaggio's tenebrism. What did remain from the Caravaggian influence was a humanistic approach. He began to paint with a lighter palette and more natural touch. During the 1620s he traveled to France, where his work was further influenced by the then-popular Mannerist movement. In 1626 he received an offer to go to England and work for King Charles I. Always needing more money, Gentileschi accepted the opportunity. By the time he was working for the English court he was tired of revolutionary style and technique. His work evolved into focusing on more conventional and ornamental themes. However, the English appreciated his continental style. Most of the work he completed in England consisted of ceiling paintings at the Greenwich palace. Some of his best known works include "Saints Cecilia and Valerian," which is located in Rome; "David after the death of Goliath," located today in Turin is regarded by a number of art historians as his masterpiece work. Painted later in his life, this work displays his late interest in gracefulness, light, and aspects of the Mannerist school. It lacks the deep chiaroscuro and tenebrism so commonly found in works he created under the influence of Caravaggio.

Gentileschi died in London in 1646. Perhaps his greatest legacy, aside from his paintings, was his daughter, Artemesia, who continued in her father’s tradition and influenced generations of artists with her bright colors and drama, as well as the development of the genre painting.