FABRIANO, GENTILE DA

(active c. 1390-1427)

   Marchigian master who painted in the International Style and who was active in Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice, and Orvieto. Gentile is known to have painted frescos in the Doge's Palace in Venice in 1408 and at the Church of St. John Lateran in Rome in 1427. These works, unfortunately, were destroyed. His major surviving masterpiece is the Adoration of the Magi (1423; Florence, Uffizi) for the Church of Santa Trinità in Florence, commissioned by the wealthy banker Palla Strozzi for his funerary chapel. The altarpiece's predella features three other scenes from Christ's childhood: the Nativity, Flight into Egypt, and Presentation in the Temple. Of these, the Nativity is the most innovative, as it presents the earliest instance when shadows are cast in response to an illuminated source within the painting.