Basket of fruit
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi, also known as)
Milano, 1571 – Porto Ercole (Grosseto), 1610
This is probably the most famous painting in Cardinal Federico’s collection, which formed the original nucleus of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. It is justly considered to be a sort of prototype of what was to become known as the “still life” genre. It shows a wicker basket brimming with fruit and leaves, rendered with great realism and attention to detail. This almost conflicts with the abstract neutral background of the painting and with the line of colour the basket itself is resting on, and from which it juts out.
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Caravaggio made this work in Rome, reusing a canvas that preserves traces of a previous painting of grotesques, possibly also autograph, in a period that art historians place between the last years of the Cinquecento (after 1597) and the early years of the following century. It has been interpreted in many different ways, some of which are religious in nature: the extreme realism with which the fresh fruits are placed alongside those that are worm-eaten, and the leaves that gradually dry out and shrivel, give tangible form to the inexorable passing of time.
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- 151
- Oil on canvas
- 47 × 61 cm
- Federico Borromeo, 1618
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