Caravaggio painted Boy with a Basket of Fruit (c. 1595) when he was around 24. It marked a shift away from the naturalistic style he had honed in Milan – before his talent for getting into fights prompted his escape to Rome – and an embrace of shadow. The painting, in which a languid youth holds a punnet of peaches, apples and other fruits that look luscious despite their blemishes, has been in the collection of the Galleria Borghese since at least the early 17th century. It is now crossing the Atlantic for an exhibition that explores the artistic currents that were shaping Caravaggio’s work at the time as well as the influence he would have on other artists (16 January–19 April). Alongside Boy with a Basket of Fruit, which John Marciari, head of drawings and prints at the Morgan, calls ‘a turning point in Italian painting’, are works by artists such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Annibale Carracci, whose Boy Drinking (c. 1583) is on public view for the first time.
Find out more from the Morgan’s website.
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