Still Life with Melon, Watermelon, Pomegranate, Grapes and Other Fruits

On a stone ledge, set against a dark blank ground, are fruits of the late summer. Several are incised to reveal their inner texture, such as the watermelon whose pink flesh is richly enameled with black seeds. The composition is stable and ordered, but rendered more dynamic by the asymmetrical layout, and by the abundance of curved forms—most notably, the grape peduncle that forms an intricate arabesque at the center of the canvas. The volumes are subtly modelled, lit in white from the left, and painted in paste-like brushstrokes (especially visible on the pear). The clever balance of geometries is characteristic of the still lifes of the Pensionante del Saraceni, an unidentified artist whose style derives from Carlo Saraceni and other Caravaggesque artists active in Rome in the second decade of the seventeenth century. Unlike the contemporary examples of Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587–1625), each element of this still life is separate, structured according to the rhythm of full and empty spaces, and of abstract volumes that give the piece a modernity reminiscent, even, of Cézanne. The harmony of the malachite green of the leaves, the pink of the watermelon, and the red-purple of the pomegranate testifies to the Pensionante’s skill as a colorist.

The name Pensionante del Saraceni was first coined by Roberto Longhi in 1943, when he attributed a group of four Caravaggesque paintings close in style to the Lombard master. Yet Longhi designated the artist as a ‘boarder’, rather than ‘student’ or ‘follower’, in order to recognize his independence from Saraceni. Indeed, Longhi considered the Pensionante to be in some ways more successful in interpreting Caravaggio’s lesson than his namesake, who never painted still lifes. Longhi proposed that the Pensionante was French, but his name and nationality remain unknown; attempts to identify him with Jean Le Clerc, Guy François, Georges de la Tour, and the Fleming Jacob van Oost the Elder have failed. Since his initial identification by Longhi, twelve paintings have been attributed to the Pensionante. None are dated, although one is listed in an inventory of 1621, which may represent a terminus ante quem for the artist’s oeuvre. Most of his works show half-length, expressionless figures in unadorned surroundings, with an atmosphere of mystery and subdued poetry.

While the majority of the Pensionante’s corpus is figural, his best-known work is Still Life with Fruit and Carafe (ca. 1610/20) in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. This work, which Longhi attributed to Caravaggio himself, bears a striking resemblance to the present example, including a similar arrangement of fruit with a split melon, cut watermelon, pear, fig, and bunch of grapes. The split melons with visibly moist pulp recur in the Pensionante’s Fruit Vendor (ca. 1615–20) in the Detroit Institute of Arts, occupying a stone ledge in the foreground. The nearly identical dimensions of the Washington still life and the present one raises the possibility that the two were originally conceived as a pair. However, Mina Gregori suggests a somewhat earlier date for our painting, which she posits is closer to the Pensionante’s Cook in the Kitchen in the Corsini Gallery, Florence. The latter shares with the present work the trompe l’oeil device of an isolated nail on the wall, whose shadow carves out pictorial space.