ABSTRACT
Orazio Gentileschi's willingness to tackle the commission was tempered by a sense of his own declining powers and increasing age—in 1636, he was seventy-three years old. He must have been both pleased and relieved when in 1637 or 1638 his daughter Artemesia, whom he cannot have seen for some years, arrived in England to help with the ceiling. Artemesia lingered on in England before finally returning to Italy; by 1642 she was reputed to be living in Naples, where she spent the rest of her life. If Nicholas Lanier was pleased to see Artemesia again, another old friend had turned up whom he was perhaps less glad to welcome—Daniel Nys. Although King Charles had eventually paid the outstanding debt on the Mantuan collection, this had not been soon enough to enable Nys to satisfy all his creditors. The King's Resident in Venice, Thomas Rowlandson, was given the unenviable task of sorting out the muddle and reconciling Nys and Burlamachi.
