Basket of Fruit

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, c. 1599

Oil on canvas, 46 × 64.5 cm

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Room II · Rise to Fame (c. 1598–1600)

Basket of Fruit, Caravaggio, c. 1599 — Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

A wicker basket balanced on the edge of a ledge against a bare, pale ground: one of the first independent still lifes in Italian painting. The withered leaves and worm-eaten fruit are a reminder that beauty fades. It belonged to Cardinal Federico Borromeo.