Still Life with Squash, Melon, Pears, Figs, Peaches, Grapes and Figs

The warm light endows the colors of the fruits with a consummate brightness which is at the same time subtly analytical and rendered by the softness and smoothness of its application. The fine purple dust on the plums creates suggestive variations, the silky skin of the peaches, the rough skin of the pumpkins, the fragrance of the red pulp of the halved watermelon, solid and meaty, the careful description of veins of the leaves, are all folios of an intensely felt naturalism, accentuated faithfully by the light, reaching heights of absolute virtuosity, as in the evocative reflection of some of the fruits in the water on the right. This is an undisputed choice even for a painter now fully baroque. The painting, whose perfect state of preservation allows for scrupulous interpretation. It stands rightfully among the best Neapolitan baroque paintings, in particular in the wake of his brother the great master Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo (Naples 1629-1697.