17th century

17th century

Still life with melons

Oil on canvas, 54,5 x 71 cm

Musical instruments, food lying on tables and kitchen counters, baskets overflowing with fruit, flower tripe, game, Farmyard animals, fish and crustaceans are some of the subjects that complemented larger works became the protagonists of a genre that spread in Italy in the first decades of the seventeenth century: the "still life". In the canvas analyzed here is proposed a composition of fruit, flowers and an object. The protagonists of this work of Lombardy are the melons that, with their green and wrinkled skin and the characteristic colour of the fruit, enliven the whole scene. In front of the melon slices, black figs have been placed and the red flesh that comes out from the cuts on the top is visible. In the left part of the canvas in the foreground are arranged plums, pears and cherries, decorative red dots, while in the background there is a large watermelon, with a red slice. The grapes and the flowers, both in shades of blue, form a chromatic band that divides the fruit from the large bucket represented in the background. The copper vessel contains a dried sunflower and roses that look out from the bucket towards the rounded surface of the watermelon. The composition is immersed in a dark and uniform background, in earthy tones, which is well connected to the warm tones of the bucket, fruits and flowers. A warm light illuminates the whole, thus adhering to Caravaggio’s lesson. Bright glows are reflected on the edge of the bucket and on the skins of the fruits. The work is well orchestrated from the compositional point of view, it is very pleasant both for the chromatic analysis and for the true details.