GENTILESCHI, Orazio
(b. 1563, Pisa, d. 1639, London)

Danaë

c. 1621
Oil on canvas, 161 x 227 cm
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Commissioned in 1621 by the nobleman Giovanni Antonio Sauli for his palazzo in Genoa, the painting remained in the family until the twentieth century. The Sauli series was amongst the most important commissions Orazio received, and includes a Penitent Magdalene (private collection), and a Lot and his Daughters (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles).

The sensuality and splendour of the Danaë draw together the Caravaggesque naturalism prevalent in early seventeenth-century Italy with the refinement and colour which mark the mature style of Gentileschi, one of the most elegant and individual figures of the Italian Baroque.

A second, inferior version of the Danaë is in the Cleveland Museum of Art.