A watermelon and a melon, quince, peaches, crabapples, grapes and figs in a landscape

This still life closely compares with a large and impressive work by Luca Forte sold at Christie's, London, 28 April 2006, lot 113 (for £500,800=$901,940). The soft treatment of the watermelon and the carefully observed texture of the squash are consistent with that picture, as is the inclusion of the white blossoms strewn along the lower edge. These similarities place the works at approximately the same point in the artist's career, circa 1630-40. The strong horizontal format of this composition suggests that it was painted as an overdoor.

Luca Forte is regarded as one of the most important still-life painters active in Naples in the first half of the seventeenth century. Although little is known of his training, his work shows the influence of Roman painters such as Tommaso Salini, Giovanni Battista Crescenzi and Pietro Paolo Bonzi. Forte is best known for having introduced the naturalism of Caravaggio to Neapolitan still life painting of the seventeenth century.