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Which early Caravaggio paintings were connected to Giuseppe Cesariâs workshop?
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Caravaggio
The Conversion of St. Paul (second version), oil on canvas by Caravaggio, 1601; in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
Two early paintings by Caravaggio are connected to the workshop of Giuseppe Cesari through their provenance:
- Boy with a Basket of Fruit
- Self-Portrait as Bacchus (also known as Sick Bacchus)
These works were later expropriated from Cesari by Scipione Borghese and are currently held in the Borghese collection. It is believed that Caravaggio may have created these paintings as demonstration pieces to prove to Cesariâwho had restricted him to painting decorative elements like flowers and fruitâthat he was capable of executing more ambitious subjects.1