Parrot tulips, hydrangeas, carnations and other flowers in an urn with a parrot holding an earring in its beak on a ledge

Andrea Scacciati's delicate and refined paintings made him one of the most successful still life painters of the Medici Grand Dukes' court. Initially, he trained as a figure painter. He went first to learn from Mario Balassi and later to Lorenzo Lippi, who encouraged him to study conscientiously the colours and qualities of flowers. As his career flourished towards the end of the century, and faced with competition from other still life artists such as Bartolomeo Bimbi (1648-1729), Scacciati increased the luxuriant quality of his paintings. He specialized in painting rich bouquets of flowers, fruits and animals from life, which infused his paintings with an almost scientific quality of observation.