ChronicaHORTICULTURAE

A PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE

Volume 44 - Number 4 - 2004

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Symposia and WorkshopsRose Hip • Hazelnut • Plum and Prune Genetics, Breeding and Pomology •Persimmon • Fire Blight

Horticultural HighlightsHorticultural Biotechnology: Challenges for Commercial Development •Caravaggio’s Fruit: A Mirror on Baroque Horticulture • Australian Ginger Industry •Biodiversity of Tropical African Vegetables • Horticulture in Sri Lanka •Horticultural Research in the French Agricultural Research Centre (CIRAD)

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 44 • NUMBER 4 •2004 • 9

Caravaggio’s Fruit: A Mirror on BaroqueHorticulture

HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE FOCUSHORTICULTURAL SCIENCE FOCUS

The star of Caravaggio (1571-1610) as amaster painter has never been higher. Hisinnovative artistry is recognized as the bridgebetween the Mannerist style typified byMichelangelo Buonarroti, Agnolo Bronzino,and Titian of the High Renaissance, with theBaroque splendor of Rubens and Rembrandt.His paintings and persona have entered popu-lar culture, his portrait and two of his workswere featured on the 100,000 lire banknote ofItaly and a movie has been made of his life.Interest in Caravaggio has been enhanced byfour current books; three of them biographies:Caravaggio by John T. Spike (2001), M: TheMan Who Became Caravaggio by Peter Robb(1998), Caravaggio by Catherine Puglisi(1998), and a recent work Secret Knowledgeby David Hockney (2001), proposing Cara-vaggio’s use of optical aids.

The life of Michelangelo Merisi, known to usas Caravaggio (Fig. 1), was short and intense,characterized by bouts of brawling, time in jail,banishment, and homicide. His paintings aretypified by a dramatic manipulation of light

Jules Janick

(chiaroscuro); reliance on human models,many with multiple appearances in his pain-tings; by a blatant homoerotic content (seePosner, 1971; Robb, 1988); direct paintingwithout preliminary drawings, a non-senti-mental approach to religious art, and an eerie“photorealism” that extends to portraiture,various objects including musical instruments,scores, and plant material. Caravaggio has leftfew personal records by his own hand but theinterpretations of his paintings by generationsof art historians, combined with recentlyunearthed archival information, provides a rich

history of the man and his time. They includeanalysis of the paintings including style andtechnique, psychological insights into the artistand subjects in the case of portraits, historicalanalysis of the period based on patrons, and ananalysis of religious meaning through thechoice of subject matter and symbolism. Thispaper takes a different approach. The dazzling“super-realism” of Caravaggio and the con-centration of fruit-images (equivalent to fin-ding a cache of contemporary photographs!)are here used to analyze the horticultural infor-mation of the period.

Figure 1. Michelangelo Merisi, knownas Caravaggio from a pastel portraitby Ottavio Leoni.

Figure 2. Paintings by Caravaggio with incidental pictures of fruits; A. Boy PeelingFruit; B. Self Portrait as Bacchus; C. Musicians; D. Boy Bitten by a Lizard; E. LutePlayer; F. Conversion of Mary Magdalen.

A

B

C

D

E

F

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THE PAINTINGS WITH FRUIT

Various fruits appear in at least 11 differentpaintings dated from 1592 to 1603 and defi-nitely attributed to the Caravaggio. Theyinclude apple, cherry, citrus (flowers), cucum-ber, fig, gourd, grape, medlar, melon, pump-kin, peach, pear, plum, pomegranate, quince,and watermelon. Just as the figures inCaravaggio’s paintings were painted from life,so too were the fruits. Exact in detail theyinclude precise representations of diseasesymptoms, insect damage, and various abioticdefects. Fruits are scattered more or less inci-dentally in six early genre paintings (Fig. 2):Boy Peeling Fruit, 1592 (apple, fig, pear,peach, plum); Self Portrait as Bacchus, 1593(peach, grape); Musicians, 1595 (grape); BoyBitten by a Lizard, 1595 (cherry, apple); LutePlayer, 1596 (cucumber, pear, fig); andConversion of Mary Magdalen, 1595 (lemonflower). In five other paintings, an assemblageof fruits is a prominent part of the composition.These will be discussed in sequence, based onthe dates of origin (see box), followed by areview of each of the fruits.

Boy with a Basket of Fruit (1592)

This early genre painting by Caravaggio (Fig.3) is of a sensual young boy holding a hugebasket filled with fruit. The model has beenidentified as Mario Minniti, who appears inmany of the early works, and who became apainter in his own right. The basket, the mainfocus of the painting, contains a great manyfruits, all in nearly perfect condition and inclu-ding a bicolored peach with a bright red blush;four clusters of grapes, two black, one red, andone “white”; a ripe pomegranate split open,disgorging its red seeds; four figs, two of themdead-ripe and black, both split, and two light-colored; two medlars; three apples, two red,

one blushed and the other striped, and oneyellow with a russet basin and a scar; twobranches with small pears, one of them withfive yellow fruits with a bright red cheek andthe other, half-hidden, with small yellow,blushed fruits. There are also leaves showingvarious disorders: a prominent virescent grapeleaf with fungal spots and another with awhite insect egg mass resembling obliquebanded leaf roller (Choristoneura rosaceana),and peach leaves with various spots.Incongruous-ly, there are two sprigs with red-dish foliage, perhaps mint. While the displayof fruits is beautiful, it does not have thesuper-realism characteristic of some of thelater paintings.

Bacchus (1597)

The arresting painting of a young, flushedBacchus (Fig. 4) is one of the most famous bythe artist. It displays a porcelain dish of ripeand rotting fruit, but the face and torso of themodel, Mario Minniti, is the focal point. Thiswork is characterized by a new sense ofrealism and represents a substantial change instyle. The suggestion by both David Hockney(2001) and Robb (1998) of the use of a mir-ror or optical aids is supported by the fact thatthe goblet of red wine is in the left hand of themodel. The fruits include black, red, and whiteclusters of grapes; a bursting pomegranate;figs; a large green pear; three apples, onegreenish and one red with a codling moth(Carpocapsa pomonella) entrance hole, asmall, golden russet crab with two areas ofrot, likely a form of Botrysphaeria; and a half-rotten quince. The basket contains two figleaves both with a dorsal (abaxial) view and agrape leaf yellowing at the edge suggestive ofpotassium deficiency. The head of Bacchus iscrowned with clusters of black and whitegrapes and senescing leaves, one of which isturning red, perhaps an indication of crowngall, induced by Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Supper at Emmaus (1601)

Supper at Emmaus is an extraordinary work,painted when Caravaggio was 30 (Fig. 5). Thescene depicts a miraculous post-Crucifixionevent (Luke 24:30) involving the discipleCleophas, the apostle Simon, an innkeeper,and a beardless stranger in the center (whohas just been recognized as the risen Christ),blessing a repast consisting of bread, achicken, white wine, water, and a marvelousbasket of fruits seemingly hovering precari-ously over the edge of the table. The picturehas some striking technical qualities. The useof perspective and foreshortening is startling:the seated Cleophas seems to move his chairand elbow into the observer’s space.However, there is a disturbing perspectiveerror (see Hockney, 2001) in which the distalright hand of Peter is larger than the proximalleft one, suggestive of the use of some type ofoptical aid consistent with the exceptionalrealism of the painting. Combining separate

views may have caused the perspectiveproblem. The figures are clearly portraits ofparticular people, and the fruit is not genericbut represents unique samples, purchasedfrom the market and forever preserved.

The fruits display an enormous amount of hor-ticultural information. The beautifully paintedwicker basket contains fall fruit, somewhatinappropriate for an Easter event, but provi-ding a clue to the date when the picture wasmade. The fruits are fully ripe and drawn pre-cisely from life with the imperfections onewould find in an “organic” production system- no insecticides, no fungicides - but sorelyneeded. There are three clusters of unble-mished grapes, two red and one white (gol-den) as well as grape leaves with fungal spots;three apples, two bicolored and one russet; aplum; and a quince with leaves attached to thespur; a ripe, splitting pomegranate with spotson the skin; and two small medlars. All of theapples show defects: one has a precise repre-sentation of a series of scab lesions caused bythe fungal pathogen Venturia inaequalis, onehas a wormhole (probably from a codlingmoth), and the russet apple shows a rottenspot, perhaps black rot. The pomegranate hasspots on the skin, and the plum is overripe andsplitting. The golden cluster of grapes is fullyripe and there is at least one split berry, whilethe black cluster is rather loose, suggestingpoor pollination; the leaves show fungal spots.The large quince and the small medlars areblemish-free. The prominent position of thefruit bowl is arresting and contrasts with theupended chicken behind it with upright legssuggesting rigor mortis. Symbolism has beenattributed to both the fruit and the chicken,but it is just as likely that Caravaggio was con-fidently showing off his extraordinary talent.

Still Life with a Basket of Fruit (1601)

This stunning still life (Fig. 6), with trompel’oeil realism, consists entirely of a basket offruit. Spike (2001) attributes it to 1596 whilePuglisi (1998) assigns it 1601, the same year asSupper at Emmaus, The 1601 date seems morelikely to me for a number of reasons, and Ihave assigned that date here. The fruit basketsin both Supper at Emmaus and Still Life with aBasket of Fruit are the same, both perchedprecariously on the edge of a table, but with adifferent collection of fruit (possibly excludingthe quince) that appears almost identical inboth paintings. (Could it be the same speci-men?) We will never know for certain but Isuggest this may have been a preparatorypainting for the larger Supper at Emmaus.Perhaps pleased with the result, Caravaggioadded it to the Supper at Emmaus as an after-thought. This basket contains a peach, a sum-mer fruit, suggesting that this image waspainted first. Six different fruits are visible. Theuppermost fruit is a good-sized, light-redpeach attached to a stem with wormholes inthe leaf resembling damage by oriental fruit

Figure 3. Boy with a Basket of Fruit.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 44 • NUMBER 4 •2004 • 11

moth (Orthosia hibisci). Beneath it is a singlebicolored apple, shown from a stem perspec-tive with two insect entry holes, probablycodling moth, one of which shows secondaryrot at the edge; one blushed yellow pear withinsect predations resembling damage by leafroller (Archips argyospita); four figs, two whiteand two purple - the purple ones dead ripe andsplitting along the sides, plus a large fig leafwith a prominent fungal scorch lesion resem-bling anthracnose (Glomerella cingulata); anda single unblemished quince with a leafy spurshowing fungal spots. There are four clustersof grapes, black, red, golden, and white; thered cluster on the right shows several mum-mied fruit, while the two clusters on the lefteach show an overripe berry. There are twogrape leaves, one severely desiccated andshriveled while the other contains spots andevidence of an egg mass. In the right part ofthe basket are two green figs and a ripe blackone is nestled in the rear on the left. On thesides of the basket are two disembodiedshoots: to the right is a grape shoot with twoleaves, both showing severe insect predationsresembling grasshopper feeding; to the left is afloating spur of quince or pear.

Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge (1603)

This gorgeous painting (Fig. 7), a recent attri-bution, consists of a collection of tree fruits andcucurbits on a slab that resembles one in a star-tling 1602 religious work, the Entombment ofChrist. There is a basket of fruits containingapple, grape, peach, pear, and plum, with twopomegranates. The basket resembles the onesin the 1601 paintings; Caravaggio uses his stu-dio props over and over. The apple has worm-holes; clearly blemish-free apples were rare.Eight figs (three light and five purple), twoshowing wounds of red flesh, are on fig leavesoutside of the basket. Most prominent are ninelarge fruits in the right of the painting, whichrepresent four different genera of the gourdfamily (Cucurbitaceae) as identified by HarryParis (personal communication). There arethree round striped melons (Cucumis melo)with yellowish flesh in the foreground, one ofwhich is burst open and from which a slice hasbeen cut. Two of these melons show thickunfurrowed peduncles and one shows thebeginning of abscission or separation (slipping)from the fruit. To the right are three smoothdark fruit, one of which has been slicedrevealing the red flesh of a watermelon(Citrullus lanatus). In the background is a largegreen and yellow striped fruit with a very thickfurrowed stem that is clearly a pumpkin(Cucurbita pepo). Most unusual are two verylarge, serpentine bottle gourds (Lagenariasiceraria).

THE FRUITS

A total of at least 17 different fruits are depic-ted in the standard paintings attributed to

Caravaggio, more if some questionable attri-butions are included (Fig. 8 and 9). Many areclearly different cultivars and a number showvarious biotic and abiotic defects. Viewedtogether, they represent a unique perspectiveon baroque horticulture between 1592 and1603.

Apple (Malus x domestica)

There is great diversity in the apples painted byCaravaggio based on size, color, and presenceof russet. Some of the apples resemble moderncultivars; they are attractive with red stripingand yellow ground color. Insect and diseaseproblems are clearly evident (Fig. 5B). Codlingmoth seems to be a severe problem and entryholes are evident in many of the fruits. Applescab is shown in one fruit; the disease is still thebane of apple growers. Apples have a continu-ous tradition of representation in Italian pain-tings since ancient Roman times and clearlywere and continue to be a favorite Italian fruit.Although there are a number of small-fruited,bitter species native to Europe, the domestic

apple was imported to Europe from centralAsia in antiquity and was well known inancient Rome.

Cherry (Prunus avium)

The painting Boy Bitten by a Lizard (1595)includes both black and light-red cherries.There is archeological evidence of the cherry inEurope 7000 years ago. Theophrastus was thefirst to describe the cherry and refers to it askerasus after the town of Kerasun in ancientPontus on the Black Sea. By Roman times,cherry was a common fruit described by Virgil(first century BCE) and Pliny the Elder (firstcentury CE) but generally as a product of wildtrees.

Citrus (Citrus species)

Citrus is represented in Caravaggio’sConversion of Mary Magdalen (1599). One ofCaravaggio’s popular models, a courtesanname Fillide Melandroni, born in 1581, is hol-ding citrus blossoms close to her bosom, asymbol of bridal fidelity. The flower, based onpigmentation of the unopened buds, appears

Figure 4. Bacchus.

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to be lemon (F. Gmitter, personal communica-tion).

In Boy Peeling Fruit (1592), the first pictureconceded by all to be by the hand ofCaravaggio (Fig. 1A), the fruit being peeledhas been described by Gregori (1985) as eithera pear, apple, or bergamot (bergamotto inItalian, beramote in French, a citrus hybridinvolving sour orange and perhaps acid lime(Reuther et al., 1967) and whose rind oil isused as the base of cologne (eau de cologne)and for other perfumery products. However,this fruit is unlikely to be a bergamot, which isdescribed as lemon yellow; furthermore, pee-ling it does not seem like a reasonable activitysince the bergamot is inedible due to extremeacidity. A pear is most likely the fruit as statedby Giulio Mancini, a contemporary and friendof Caravaggio who wrote about the paintingin 1617-1621. Bergamot is often pear-shapedand that may explain the confusion.

A painting of disputed attribution, Still Lifewith Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables (Fig. 8) inthe Galleria Borghese in Rome, contains alarge citron (Citron medica) that looks verysimilar to citron painted by Bartolomeo Bimbiin the 18th century (Consiglioi Nazionale DelleRicerche, 1982) as well as an orange. Thecitron, the first citrus introduced to the West,was frequently used in Roman mosaics torepresent the winter season (Parrish, 1994)The citron is considered a sacred tree to Jewswho know the fruit as the etrog, still used forthe celebration of Sukkot, the Feast of theTabernacles. The orange is a late introductionto Europe, introduced in the Mediterraneanbasin by the Arabs.

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)

A single cucumber peeks out of the paintingLute Player (1596) in Fig. 2E and is very simi-

lar in aspect to one found in an early still lifesometimes attributed to Caravaggio (Fig. 8).The cucumber was long a favorite fruit inRoman antiquity. Pliny the Elder in the firstcentury relates that the emperor Tiberius wasso fond of out-of-season cucumbers that heforced its growth in a specularium, an earlygreenhouse using mirrorstone (mica).

Fig (Ficus indica)

Caravaggio is attracted to figs and displaysthem in five paintings. At least four differenttypes are shown: green, light tan, reddish, andblack. Black figs are often shown split at thesuture. Most figs are shown unblemished butthere is evidence of leaf damage by variousinsects. There were many cultivars of figs inItaly in the 17th century and Bartolomeo Bimbi(1648-1720), names and paints 33 of them inone painting (Consiglio Nazionale delleRicerche, 1982). The figs painted byCaravaggio are similar to three figs ‘CosagnoloLungo’ (black), ‘Lardaiolo vero’ (white) and‘Corboliere Lunghi’ (red), illustrated in an

and is famously represented in the festoonspainted by Giovanni da Udina surroundingRaphael’s frescos of Cupid and Psyche in theVilla Farnesina (1517-1519) (Janick, 2004).

Grape (Vitis vinifera)

Grape is found in six of Caravaggio’s paintingsin the form of fruit, leaves, and wine. Manycultivars are displayed and often in the samepicture, with colors ranging from black to va-rious shades of red, green, and amber. Most ofthe clusters are in excellent condition; defectsinclude an overripe berry and mummies. Bothred and white wine are displayed. The chang-ing color of senescing leaves is featured alongwith insect damage; two leaves contain insectegg masses. Some leaves show evidence ofnutritional deficiency symptoms. Grape hasbeen cultivated in Italy since antiquity and isone of the most ancient of fruit crops.

Medlar (Mespilus germanica)

Medlars are included in two paintings ofCaravaggio and all are small and appear simi-lar. Cultivated by the Assyrians, the fruit was

Figure 5. A. Supper at Emmaus; B. Close-up of fruit basket. undated manuscript by P.A. Micheli (1679-1713), the first director of the BotanicalGarden of Florence. The fig is native to theMediterranean area, mentioned in an Egyptianstele about 2700 BCE, commonly referred to inthe Hebrew Bible, and widely cited by Greekand Roman agricultural writers.

Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)

The two enormous, serpentine fruits in the1603 still life (Fig 7) are bottle gourds native toAfrica, but also found in Asia and theAmericas. Lagenaria was known to the ancientEgyptians and probably reached Europe fromAfrica at a very early date. The Italians mayhave selected these long fruited types, bulbousat the stylar end, and known today as cucuzzi.When very young they are consumed as issummer squash (Cucurbita pepo). This fruitwas recorded in Europe in the 15th century,

AB

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 44 • NUMBER 4 •2004 • 13

introduced to Greece and was referred to byTheophrastus. The fruit is disappearing frommost European markets but can still found inItaly, Germany, and France. The medlar mustbe fermented (bletted) to be enjoyed.Shakespeare ridiculed the fruit in a famousquote:

I’ll graff it with you and then I shall graff itwith a medlar; then it will be the earliest fruiti’ the country; for you’ll be rotten ere you behalf ripe, and that’s the right vertue of themedlar. (As You Like It, III.2).

Melon (Cucumis melo)

The three melons (melone in Italian) shown inthe 1603 painting Still Life with Fruit on aStone Ledge (Fig. 7) resemble heirloom culti-vars of the Cantalupensis group (the rockmelon or the true cantaloupe). These arerounded in shape and often have prominentribs. ‘Noir des Carme’, named for theCarmelite monks who cultivated it in France, issimilar in appearance although the flesh is adeeper orange than the one painted byCaravaggio. A photograph of ‘Noir des Carme’in Amy Goldman’s Melons for the PassionateGrower (2002) shows this melon burstingwhen ripe, as does the one painted byCaravaggio, and also shows the remains of anabscission zone in the peduncle. Robb (1998)misidentifies this fruit as marrow, which is aform of pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) with a clubrather than a round shape, but this designationis unlikely since the shape is round, and thepeduncles lack the furrowing that is definitivefor this species. In Caravaggio’s painting thewrinkled peduncle is unusually thick, a featurenot unknown in melons, but is not 5-ribbed asis Cucurbita moschata or C. pepo. TheCantalupensis group appears to originate inCentral Asia and, according to Amy Goldman(2002), was taken by missionaries to the gar-dens at Cantalupo, the papal country home

Figure 7. Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge.

Figure 6. Still Life of a Basket of Fruit.

near Rome from which it derives it names. Itwas known to be exported to France in 1495and from there found its way to the rest ofEurope. In Caravaggio’s Still Life with Fruit ona Stone Ledge, two of the three melons aredark green and one is yellow, suggestinggenetic segregation.

Peach (Prunus persica)

Caravaggio illustrates the peach in at least fourpaintings with a remarkable diversity in color.Insect damage, as well as brown rot incited byMonilinia laxa, was clearly a problem then asit is today. This fruit has been popular in Italysince antiquity and was introduced from Chinavia Central Asia. The binomial Prunus persicasuggests that it was introduced from Persia,obviously a way station. A painting from Pom-peii shows large, green fruit with yellowingflesh and a freestone pit (Jashemski, 1979).

Pear (Pyrus communis)

Pears are found in six of Caravaggio’s pain-tings. A great number of types are displayedincluding yellow, green, and red with size vary-ing from small to very large. The small brightred ones in Boy with a Basket of Fruit resem-ble ‘Moscadella’ (‘Moscatelle’) types describedby Bimbi as well as the Micheli manuscript,and also resemble one of the pears in thefamous painting by Vicenzo Campi entitledFruit Seller (1580) as well as paintings byGiovanna Garzoni (Trkulja et al., 2000). Thereis evidence of leaf roller damage on one yellowpear. The soft-fleshed European pear (Pyruscommunis), native in Europe, North Africa,and Asia Minor, has been considered part ofthe cultural heritage of Europe. The pear hasbeen consumed since prehistoric times anddried slices have been unearthed in Swiss cavedwellings of the Ice Age. The first literary men-tion of the pear is found in Homer’s epic poemThe Odyssey and is included as one of the“gifts of the gods” which grew in the leg-endary gardens of Alcinöus. They are men-tioned by Theophras-tus and the Roman agri-cultural writers; Pliny the Elder writes exten-sively of pear, mentioning many types. Thepear is found in a number of religious paintingsof the Renaissance; the most famous isGiovanni Bellini’s Madonna of the Pear. Pearsstill find a large place in Italian horticulturealthough the most popular pear grown in Italyis now a French cultivar called ‘Abbé Fétel’.

Plum (Prunus domestica)

European plums are found in two paintings byCaravaggio. A greengage plum (‘Reine-Claude’) is one of the fruits in Boy PeelingFruit (1592), and purple plums resembling‘Damson’ are found in Still Life with Fruit ona Ledge (1601). European plums are thoughtto be a hybrid between Prunus cerasifera andPrunus spinosa, which originated in Iran and

ISHS • 14

Asia Minor and spread across Europe. Theyhave been known in Europe since antiquity,and Pliny the Elder described 12 different plumcultivars in the first century. Greengage plumsare still grown.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum)

A prominent crown-like calyx characterizes thepomegranate, sometimes known as theChinese apple. This ancient fruit is a favoritesubject of Caravaggio, who includes it in fourpaintings. All but one of these fruits are shownsplit open to highlight the seeds enclosed bybrilliant red pulp. There are two skin colors, redand light brown. Pomegranate appears tohave originated in Iran, with archeologicalremains found at Nimrud. It spread throughoutthe Mideast including Egypt where it wasknown 4000 years ago. It is referred to in theHebrew Bible and was used for juice and wine.It is presumed to have been introduced intoEurope by the Carthaginians, and this is thebasis of its Latin name Punicus. It is describedby Theophrastus; Pliny the Elder considered itone of the most valuable of fruits both for itsbeauty and medicinal properties.

Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo)

Caravaggio has painted a single striped, ribbedpumpkin very similar to some kinds nowgrown in Europe and Asia. This fruit is knownin the United States, depending on its shape,either as pumpkin (if fruits are round) orsquash (non-round); as citrouille and courge inFrench; and zucca in Italian. Shakespeareabout 1590 derogatorily compares the rotundFalstaff to this fruit:

We’ll use this unwholesome humidity, thisgross watery Pumpion (Merry Wives ofWindsor, III.3).

Cucurbita pepo is very polymorphic and vari-ous cultivated types have been selected (Paris2001), including Halloween, pie, and oil-seedpumpkins, and scallop, acorn, vegetable mar-

row, crookneck, cocozelle, straightneck, andzucchini squash. Native to southern NorthAmerica, the species was introduced intoEurope in the early 1500s and was rapidlycommercialized. The German botanist Fuchsincluded images of the pumpkin in De HistoriaStirpium (1542) and by 1566, ribbed fruitsappear in a market scene painting (Markt-tafereel op het Land) by Joachim Beuckelaar.

Quince (Cydonia oblonga)

Quince was clearly familiar to Caravaggio, forhe paints it at least three times, and each timeas a relatively large fruit as it is known today.In two paintings the fruits are unblemished,although in one example, the leaves show

spots, and in another the fruits are half rotten.The quince, native to western Asia, is anancient fruit known in Mesopotamian cultures.The name cydonia is derived from Cydonea,now Canea (Khaniá), a city in Crete, which,according to Pliny the Elder, was the origin ofquince. Although once widely admired, quincehas lost popularity, probably because they areacid and astringent, thereby restricting theiruse to preserves, but there are types grown inTurkey that are nonacid and can be consumedfresh.

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)

Three luscious watermelons, called cocomeroin Italian, are illustrated in the 1603 still life. OfAfrican origin, watermelon has been knownsince antiquity and is mentioned in theHebrew Bible (Numbers 11:5). It was intro-duced to India about 800 and to China about1100. The Arabs brought it to Spain, fromwhich it reached Italy; it is mentioned inEuropean herbals of the 1500s. Watermelonsbecame popular subjects in 17th-century stilllifes.

FRUITS AS METAPHOR

There are many ways to interpret the fruitsimages of Caravaggio. Artistically they can beviewed for their beauty or for the painter’s skillor style. Art historians are prone to interpretthem symbolically including religious, philo-sophical, or erotic overtones. Horticulturallythey can be viewed in the context of geneticdiversity, biotic associations, or managementpractices. That these interpretations are notmutually exclusive, can be shown in an analy-sis of the painting Still Life with Fruits on a

Figure 9. Still Life with Flowers and Fruits, attribution.

Figure 8. Still Life with Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables, attribution.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 44 • NUMBER 4 •2004 • 15

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Vasari, Georgio. 1550, 1568. Giovanni daUdine, Painter (1494-1564). In: TheLives of the Most Excellent PaintersSculptors and Architects, Florence.

Von Lates. 1995. Caravaggio’s peachesand academic puns. Word & Image11(1)55-60.

Stone Ledge (Fig. 7). Artistically and horticul-turally this painting represents a stunning arrayof temperate fruits and cucurbits brilliantlydepicted. Art historians have been quick tointerpret both religious and erotic overtones.Thus, J.T. Spike (2001) assumes the stoneledge is an altar table, seeing the pome-granates as a Christian symbol of the resurrec-tion, associating the grape and vine leaveswith the Eucharist, the apples as a symbol oforiginal sin, and the wormholes and otherblemishes as symbols of the transience ofhuman life. At the same time he notes that thepainting abounds with visual puns of eroticcontent, a view shared by Peter Robb (1998)and Catherine Puglisi (1998). I was skeptical,but an analysis of a vast literature on theerotic imagery of fruit paintings byRenaissance artists (see Vasari, 1550 onGiovanni da Udina; Morel, 1985; Von Lates,1995; Janick, 2004) leaves no doubt thatCaravaggio has used subtle erotic doubleentendres in this painting.

I also suggest that the fruits pictured byCaravaggio might be of help in authenticatingthe attribution of two disputed works; Still Lifewith Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables (Fig. 8)and Still Life with Flowers and Fruits (Fig. 9).These two paintings had been in the collectionof Giueseppi Cesari (Cavalieri d’Arpino),1568-1640, who employed the youngCaravaggio to paint flowers and fruits.Whether they are by Caravaggio alone, or bya team including Caravaggio, has been deba-ted, but the suggestion of collaboration for astudio commission is not beyond the pale,despite some compositional and style diffe-rences from his known fruit paintings. Theinclusion of apple, cherry, cucumber, fig,gourd, grape, lemon, medlar, melon, peach,pear, plum, pomegranate, pumpkin, andquince is consistent with Caravaggio’s laterworks; included here are also arbutus, citron,hazelnut, orange, strawberry, walnuts as wellas vegetables such as artichoke, bean, cab-bage, cardoon, celery, eggplant, onion,parsnip, and tomato. Melon, pumpkin, andgourd are found in both Still Life of Flowers,Fruits, and Vegetables (Fig. 8), and Still Lifewith Fruits on a Stone Ledge (Fig. 7). Interes-tingly a partial representation of a cucumber(Fig. 8) is almost identical to, but a mirrorimage of, the one found in The Lute Player(Fig. 2E). In my opinion, these and other simi-larities such as the ubiquitous basket and thevases of flowers support the assumption thatthe young Caravaggio had a hand in thesepaintings, for they presage his later work.

Caravaggio’s images of fruits tell us muchabout baroque horticulture. They underscorethe rich diversity of fruits available in the fruitmarkets of Rome and the genetic diversitywithin individual species, especially noted forapples, pears, and peaches. They demonstratethat diseases and pests were a problem then asthey are now, describing a horticulture in

desperate need of pest control. The most star-tling fact is that the fruits of 1600 surelylooked as luscious as these same fruits do atpresent, 400 years later. Their similarity topresent day cultivars suggests in many casesthere have been only trivial changes in the last400 years, and in some cases 2000 years.

PAINTINGS BY

CARAVAGGIO

[Dates Based by Puglisi (1998) or Spike(2001)]Boy Peeling Fruit, 1592. Philips, LondonBoy with a Basket of Fruit, 1593.

Galleria Borghese, RomeSelf-Portrait as Bacchus, 1593. Galleria

Borghese, RomeMusicians, 1595. Metropolitan Museum

of Art, New YorkBoy Bitten by a Lizard, 1595. National

Gallery, LondonLute Player, 1596. Hermitage, Saint

PetersburgBacchus, 1597. Galleria degli Uffize,

FlorenceConversion of Mary Magdalen, 1599.

Detroit Institute of Arts, DetroitSupper at Enmaus, 1601. National

Gallery, LondonStill Life of a Basket of Fruit, 1601.

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, MilanEntombment, 1602. Pinacoteca Vati-

cana, Vatican CityStill Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge,

1603. Private collection

Prof. Jules JanickJames Troop Distinguished Professor ofHorticulture at Purdue University, WestLafayette, Indiana, USA is a BoardMember of ISHS and Director of ISHSPublications.email: janick@purdue.edu

ABOUT THE

AUTHOR

Jules Janick