Still Life with Birds and Fruit
Giovanna Garzoni (Italian, 1600–1670)
c. 1650
- Medium
- watercolor with graphite, heightened with lead white
- Classification
- Drawing
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 25.7 x 41.6 cm (10 1/8 x 16 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Drawings
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Elma M. Schniewind in memory of her parents Mr. and Mrs. Frank Geib
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Garzoni was one of the few women artists to achieve prominence in Italy during the 1600s. She garnered fame with her naturalistic still lifes on vellum, which combined scientific accuracy with sensitive artistry. Here, three small goldfinches on fruit branches and a larger bee-eater are dispersed across an earth-toned ground. The goldfinches sit on branches from which hang two plums (left), a peach (center), and a pear (right). A yellow quince and purple fig appear in the left foreground. Garzoni’s refined interpretations of the natural world suited the taste of aristocratic patrons like the Medici family, who acquired her drawings to decorate their villas.
