Italian painter in the International Gothic style. Originally named Gentile di Niccolò di Giovanni di Massio, he was named after his birthplace, Fabriano in the Marches. He carried out important commissions in several major Italian art centres and was recognized as one of the foremost artists of his day, but most of the work on which his great contemporary reputation was based has been destroyed. It included frescos in the Doges Palace in Venice (1408) and for St John Lateran in Rome (1427). In between he worked in Florence, Siena, and
Orvieto. His major surviving work is the celebrated altarpiece of the
Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi, Florence, 1423), painted for the church of Sta Trinità in Florence, which places him alongside
Ghiberti as one of the greatest exponents of the International Gothic style in Italy. It is remarkable not only for its exquisite decorative beauty but also for the naturalistic treatment of light in the
predella, where there is a night scene with three different light sources. Gentile had widespread influence (much more so initially than his great contemporary
Masaccio), notably on
Pisanello, his assistant in Venice, Jacopo Bellini, who worked with him in Florence, and
Fra Angelico, who was his greatest heir.
