Grape Vines and Fruit, with Three Wagtails

Embodying the intersection of art and natural science, this exercise in direct observation probably resulted from lessons held at an academy founded in Rome in the 1610s by Cavarozzi’s principal patron. This hypothesis is supported by the painting’s lack of compositional structure, the proximity of its fruit and birds to the picture plane against a monochrome background, and, perhaps most remarkably, its large size that suggests the artist sought to represent his subject at a one-to-one scale. Cavarozzi’s mesmerizingly precise and accurate depictions of vegetation in his more conventional still-life and religious works are indebted to this rigorous and exceptional practice.