Lot 44. Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, formerly known as the Master of the Acquavella still life (Viterbo, circa 1590-1625 Rome), Basket of fruit on a stone ledge, inscribed with an inventory number lower left (see note): 439, oil on canvas, 35 3/8  by 48 in.; 90 by 122 cm. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD. Lot sold 519,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

Provenance: Almost certainly in the Barberini collection, Rome, before 1812. 

Literature: A. Cottino (ed.), La Natura Morta al tempo di Caravaggio, exhibition catalogue, Rome 1995, pp. 154-155, no. 40;
A. Cottino, “Le Origini e lo sviluppo della natura morta barocca a Roma”, in Natura morta italiana tra Cinquecento e Settecento, Milan 2002, p. 162; 
A. Cottino, in M. Gregori (ed.), La Natura morta italiana da Caravaggio al Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Florence 2003, pp. 168-169, reproduced in color;
A. Cottino, L'Incantesimo dei sensi: Una collezione di nature morte del Seicento per il Museo Accorsi, Turin 2005, p. 44-47, 100-101, cat. no. 4, reproduced p. 45;
A. Coliva and D. Dotti (eds.), L’origine della natura morta in Italia. Caravaggio e il Maestro di Hartford, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2016-2017, pp. 242-243, cat. no. 27, reproduced in color, p. 195. 

Note: This beautifully arranged Basket of fruit on a stone ledge by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi is both an important and evocative example of the first generation of Roman still life painting. Completed sometime in the first quarter of the 17th century, it dramatically exemplifies the advances made in the still-life genre in the early seicento. What appears to be a straightforward display of fruit is in fact a highly thought out and studied composition which incorporates the lessons of Caravaggio's groundbreaking, realistic approach to the genre.  

The dynamic artistic environment in which this Basket of fruit on a stone ledge was created cannot be overstated. Certainly, Caravaggio was the leading proponent of the genre, if not through the number of independent still lifes he executed, then through the obvious skill and bold refinement he brought to its development. Without question, his Basket of Fruit (Fiscella) (fig.1, 1599, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan) emerges as perhaps the most strikingly original contribution to Italian still life painting. Indeed, the wicker basket, and the manner in which it convincingly hangs over the stone ledge, immediately recall Caravaggio's own example from the Ambrosiana Fiscella.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio  (1571-1610), Basket of Fruit, oil on canvas, 1594-1598 / Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy / De Agostini Picture Library / Bridgeman Images.