Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio (, , ; 28 September 1571 – 18 July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily from the early 1590s to 1610. His paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque painting.
Michelangelo Cerquozzi
Cerquozzi painted still life paintings throughout his career. His early still life paintings imitated the work of Pietro Paolo Bonzi, a still life specialist. These painting were still lifes of fruits that strived for realism and showed the influence of Caravaggio. He started to compose large still life painting which included with life-size figures.
Examples of his still life paintings are the (640-1645, Prado Museum) and the (after 1640, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), which both depict a young man and a young woman in an orchard with the man offering the sitting woman a piece of fruit. A still life of fruit is in front of the figures. The figures show clearly the influence of the Caravaggesque naturalism. The somewhat contorted expression of the young man, his naked torso and the open white shirt bring to mind the memory of certain early works of Caravaggio. The superb rendering of the vine leaves and grapes in the Prado piece evoke Caravaggio's "Basket of fruit in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. However, the opulence of the pumpkins, the open pomegranate and the presence of a landscape barely visible in the background point to a more advanced phase in the evolution of the genre and show full Baroque influences. The Baroque freedom of vision and "plein air" setting of these compositions show Cerquozzi to be a mediator from Caravaggio to the "Baroque".