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.
Still Life with Fruit (Caravaggio)
It was first recorded in the collection of Cardinal Antonio Barberini in 1671, as being "in the hand" of the artist; how it came to be there (and this is the first recorded mention of its existence) is open to speculation, but Barberini is known to have bought up part of the collection of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, Caravaggio's first patron, when the cardinal died in 1627 . It may therefore have been a private work for Del Monte.