National Gallery of Australia | Audio Tour | Three Centuries of Italian Art

Campi introduced a regional realism to the Carracci Academy in Bologna and also influenced Carravaggio, who was born in Lombardy. This sentimental subject is treated formally in a strong composition of repeated shapes. From a high viewpoint the bounteous harvest of fruit and vegetables is visible, as is the woman who is as round and fresh as the fruit she displays. The painting may be an allegory of love, symbolised by the grapes in her hand.