Melons, figs, pears and quinces, in front of a bowl with grapes and apples, on a wooden ledge,
oil on canvas, 71 x 96.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 88508 (as Tommaso Salini).

This work shows a variety of fruits including pumpkins, quinces, figs and grapes arranged on a ledge before a monochromatic dark background. The composition is illuminated from the front, creating a dramatic play between light and shadow and thereby enhancing the different textures. The linear arrangement is balanced by the leaves expanding vertically into the pictorial space.

Caravaggio’s influence on the present composition can be seen in the depiction of elements taken from nature and represented with realism, giving the subject the same formal and interpretative dignity that in painting had only been previously reserved for religious subjects, mythological and historical paintings or portraiture. Before this period, still lifes were merely used to enrich parts of larger compositions, hierarchically subordinate to other objects of representation. Compositions, such as the present work, placed the representation of nature at the centre.

The painter of the present composition was also influenced by the naturalistic models of the Master of Hartford, Michelangelo Cerquozzi and Tommaso Salini. The present painting also combines the analytical representation of individual elements, placed symmetrically in relation to a central axis, and a proto-baroque decorative taste, similar to the works of Agostino Verrocchi.