Cleveland Museum of Art

Still Life with Birds and Fruit

Date

c. 1650

Medium

watercolor with graphite, heightened with lead white

Culture

Italy

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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. Giovanna Garzoni was one of just a few women artists to rise to prominence in Italy in the 1600s.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.