Boy with a Basket of Fruit

Working in oil on canvas, Caravaggio painted this Boy with a Basket of Fruit around 1593, shortly after arriving in Rome. A sensuous young man offers a basket of fruit painted with almost scientific precision. The peaches, grapes, and leaves show both ripeness and early decay, suggesting life's transience.

The model may be Mario Minniti, who appears in several early Caravaggio paintings and later became an artist himself. The dramatic lighting from the upper left, highlighting the youth's bare shoulder, hints at the tenebrism Caravaggio would develop later. Cardinal Francesco del Monte likely acquired the painting; it entered the Borghese collection in 1607. It hangs in the Borghese Gallery.