Basket of Fruit
c. 1599 · Oil on canvas · Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan
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About this work
- Artist
- Caravaggio (1571–1610)
- Year
- c. 1599
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 46 × 64.5 cm
- Collection
- Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan
- Movement
- Baroque
A wicker basket of apples, pears, figs, quinces and grapes, with their leaves, sits on a ledge against a plain pale wall, its rim projecting just over the edge toward the viewer. The fruit is at the turn: an apple is worm-eaten, the leaves are curling and spotted, the grapes dusty. Caravaggio painted it in Rome around 1599, and it is one of the earliest independent still lifes in Italian art; he is recorded as saying it took as much skill to paint flowers as figures. It was owned by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who gave it to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, the library he founded in Milan, in 1607, and it has been there ever since. The eye-level viewpoint and the empty wall give a basket of fruit the gravity of a portrait.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A basket of fruit against a plain pale wall, painted at eye level, so hang it the same way: above a kitchen counter, dining sideboard or pantry door at 24×18. Black frame on a cream or warm grey wall.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Baroque painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1599)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- kitchen, dining room, living room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×18. Prints at 16×12, 24×18 in — 16×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×18 above a console or sideboard.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing. Also available gallery-wrapped on canvas, ready to hang with no frame.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Basket of Fruit in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Basket of Fruit painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
