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)
Caravaggio has justly been credited as the father of Roman still-life painting, a genre which was in its infancy in the early 17th century. Although Caravaggio very frequently included still-life elements in his works, only two independent still lifes from his hand have been identified to date. These are the "Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge" and the "Basket of Fruit" at the Ambrosiana in Milan. Because of both the extraordinary virtuosity of its execution and the complexity of meaning suggested by its composition, scholars have referred to the "Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge" as a "capital picture for the artist" and a "masterpiece of still life."