Still life with melon, pears, black grapes, pomegranates, plums and ‘annurche’, quince or 'alappie' apples

Who among us would display, today, a still life of fruit with such distinctly Caravaggesque tones in a bedroom or in adjacent rooms?

Yet, in 1817, the painting is exhibited in Carditello in the 'Room for Toilette Use' (Dressing Room), near the Bedroom.

The painterly quality and the play of light and shadow liken it to the best manner of Baldassarre de Caro, who refines the volumes and shapes of fruit with light.

In the work, the juicy pears, the hard-skinned melons, the “annurche” apples typical of the Vesuvian areas, the black grapes, the ripe pomegranates, and the plums – firm and fleshy – all contribute to revealing and suggesting the light, from which the volumes emerge.