Pensionante De Saraceni (Active 1610-20)

• Pensionante del Saraceni is the name given to the unidentified.
• His style derives from Carlo Saraceni and other Caravaggesque artists active in Rome in the second decade of the seventeenth century.
• In an important study of painters in the circle of Caravaggio, published in 1943, Roberto Longhi gathered together a group of four stylistically similar paintings, attributing them to an independent personality whom he called the Pensionante del Saraceni.
• Because Saraceni was known to be a francophile, at least one French artist lived in his house, and these paintings had a "vague French intonation," Longhi suggested that this "boarder of Saraceni" was a French artist.
• Since Longhi's identification of the Pensionante, twelve works have been associated with the artist.
• These paintings mostly represent half-length, expressionless figures set in unadorned surroundings.
• None of the paintings is dated, but one is listed in an inventory of 1621, which may be a terminus ante quem for the Pensionante's entire oeuvre.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: The Fruit Vendor, ca. between 1615 and 1620.
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