Boy with basket of fruit

Merisi Michelangelo called Caravaggio

(Milan 1571 - Porto Ercole 1610)

The canvas comes from the group of works confiscated in 1607 from Giuseppe Cesari, known as the Cavalier d'Arpino, accused by Paul V's emissaries of illegal possession of firearms. In order to gain his release, the painter was forced to offer his picture gallery to the Apostolic Chamber, donated shortly after by Paul V to his nephew Scipione Borghese, presumed mastermind behind the planned theft.

The work dates back to the period in which Michelangelo Merisi was working in the workshop of the artist from Arpino. It shows a young man, in a three-quarter pose, holding a basket full of autumn leaves and fruits, such as apples and bunches of grapes, which have nature's typical imperfections.

With this canvas the artist demonstrated his ability to explore nature with a profound capacity for mimesis, devoid of aesthetic interpretations. In fact, the painting is admirable proof of representation from real life. His work in this direction reached its most mature phase with the isolated perfection of the Canestra di frutta [Basket of Fruit], painted for Cardinal Federico Borromeo (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana).

Object details

Commentary

This painting was part of the famous expropriation of the painting collection belonging to the painter Giuseppe Cesari, called Cavalier d’Arpino, accused in 1607 of illegal possession of firearms by Pope Paul V’s prosecutors. The artist, patron to a young Merisi, was forced to hand over to the Apostolic Chamber his entire collection, which included 107 paintings, among which two works by Caravaggio: Sick Bacchus (inv. 534) and Boy with a Basket of Fruit, both requisitioned by the Pope and donated to his nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese.

Described in the inventory of the seizure as: “[…] a young man holding a basket of fruit” (De Rinaldis, 1936, p. 577), the canvas was mentioned as part of the Borghese family’s collection both in the inventory of 1693 (“A painting three spans in height with a Youth holding a basket of fruit and two Nmbrs, one 606 and the other 475, with a gilded frame by Michelan Garavagna”), and in that of 1790 (“A youth with a basket of fruit, Caravaggio,” alongside a “man with a basket of flowers, Caravaggio,” the latter not recorded by the fideicommissary in 1833.

Despite the certainty of its provenance and the inventory listings, in 1888 the attribution of the canvas was questioned by Giovanni Piancastelli. However, this opinion was not shared by Adolfo Venturi, who in 1893, when compiling the Gallery’s first catalogue, reascribed the painting to Caravaggio, considering it a reference point for the painter’s juvenile production. In 1921-22, Matteo Marangoni deemed the painting to be an antique copy, a judgement that was shared by Ludwig Schudt, and partially by Walter Friedländer, who considered only the fruit basket to be original. These theories were all forcefully rejected over the following years by Hermann Voss, Roberto Longhi, sir Denis Mahon, and Paola della Pergola, who duly returned the painting to Caravaggio’s catalogue, making it possible for later critics to unanimously consider it his original work.

The work was painted by Merisi immediately after his arrival in Rome, as proven both by the lingering Lombard influence on his style, and by the fact that it came from d’Arpino’s workshop, where Caravaggio was employed to paint fruit and flowers. The date so far hypothesized by critics – between the end of the 1580s and the early 1590s – varies depending on the reconstruction of the painter’s Roman period, ranging between 1589-90, according to Longhi (1952), and 1592-94, according to Mahon (1951; 1952). After recent studies, which have placed the painter’s arrival in Rome around 1595, Zuccari (2017, p. 257) suggested postponing the execution of this painting to 1596-97, setting it immediately after Sick Bacchus and Boy Bitten by a Lizard (Fondazione Roberto Longhi, Firenze).        

This is a three-quarter view portrait of a boy holding a basket full of autumn fruits and leaves, described by Longhi as “a humble biological drama,” a definition with which Argan was well acquainted, though for his part he saw the basket as an allusion to death. In fact, according to the latter scholar, the imperfections depicted by the artist, such as the dry or tarnished leaves, speak of fading beauty and the fleetingness of time. 

In this work, light certainly has the lead role, seeping in from behind the boy and reflecting off of the basket, revealing its contents with all their irregularities and imperfections, while at the same time displaying the painter’s skill in dwelling upon natural elements with great mastery, void of aesthetical interpretations. In fact, this painting is a feat of realism, which will reach its full maturity with the Basket of Fruit painted not long after for Cardinal Federico Borromeo (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana).

Many opinions have been given over the years as to the interpretation of the subject matter, seen by some – following in Longhi’s wake – as an imitation of real-life with no relevant symbolic content, while many others consider it to be replete with metaphorical images evocative of the concept of Love, both sacred and profane. According to Donald Posner, this canvas is charged with erotic messages, interpreted by Maurizio Calvesi as references to the love of Christ who, by offering the basket is giving himself over to humanity, which has no hope of delivery. In fact, according to this scholar, his compassionate gaze reveals the futility of the gesture.

Among those who have offered an allegorical interpretation of the painting there are those who have seen the subject as a representation of Autumn (Kurt Bauch), of Vertumnus (Giacomo Berra, Kristina Hermann Fiore), of the five senses, especially Taste (Jane Costello, Minna Heimbürger Ravalli), as a symbol of Vanitas (René Jullian, Barry Wind, Alberto Cottino) or of youth (Mia Cinotti), and finally as one of the two lovers in the Song of Songs (Maurizio Calvesi).

Following certain analyses carried out on the work in 2012, an underlying preparatory drawing was revealed, a sketch made by the artist directly on the canvas confirming the sources that report that Caravaggio painted “from nature.”    

Antonio Iommelli