Basket of Fruit

Painted by Caravaggio around 1599, the small 'Basket of Fruit' (Canestra di frutta) is one of the foundational works of independent still-life painting in Western art. Set against an almost neutral, luminous ground, the wicker basket brims with apples, pears, grapes, figs, peaches, and vine-leaves — rendered with unsparing precision, down to the wormhole in one apple and the curling, desiccating edges of the leaves. Presented at eye level with no religious or mythological frame, the picture insists on the bare existence of its fruit. It is the most famous single object in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana's art gallery in Milan.

Exhibition Venue

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

Milan, Italy