NEW YORK, NY.- The Morgan Library & Museum is presenting Caravaggio’s “Boy with a Basket of Fruit” in Focus, celebrating the extraordinary loan of this important early masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) from the Galleria Borghese in Rome. On view from January 16 through April 19, 2026, the exhibition showcases what can be considered Caravaggio’s first masterpiece alongside a group of ten works that place the painting in context, from the artist’s influences to those he influenced.

Trained in his native Lombardy, Caravaggio brought to Rome a tradition of naturalism that stretched back to Leonardo da Vinci’s work in Milan. He combined this tradition with a revolutionary approach to painting that shattered the illusion of art and celebrated the artifice of the studio. Boy with a Basket of Fruit (ca. 1595), in which these key elements of Caravaggio’s art come together for the first time, marks the beginning of a revolution in Italian painting.

“Caravaggio captures the imagination in a way that almost no other artist can,” said Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “We are exceptionally fortunate to be able to bring this masterpiece from the Galleria Borghese to share with visitors in New York for the first time in the twenty-first century, accompanied by works that illuminate his impact on the field of painting.”

“Boy with a Basket of Fruit marks a turning point in Italian painting,” said John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Department Head of Drawings and Prints, and Director of Curatorial Affairs. “It is a linchpin between the naturalism of Caravaggio’s sources and his radical interventions in exposing the artifice of painting. To see this painting in context is to understand the revolution it represents.”

With his parted lips, flushed ears, and shirt slipping from his shoulder, the boy in the painting is far from the idealized figures typically depicted in Roman painting at the time. Caravaggio painted neither a god nor a saint, but an artist’s model, captured on the canvas and seemingly offered to us for examination, much like the fruit the boy presents to the viewer.

The exhibition juxtaposes this remarkable work with some precedents for its naturalism, including earlier paintings from Milan, such as Four Seasons in One Head (ca. 1590) by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527– 1593), on loan from the National Gallery of Art. Other precedents include Boy Drinking (ca. 1583) by Caravaggio’s slightly older contemporary Annibale Carracci (1560–1609). A significant loan from a private collection, this painting has never been on public view.

Also exhibited are two works by Caravaggio’s early mentors and influences: a drawing by Simone Peterzano (ca. 1535–1599), who was the young Caravaggio’s teacher in Milan, and a study by Giuseppe Cesari (1568–1640), in whose studio Caravaggio worked in Rome. Although Caravaggio would eventually turn away from preparatory drawings in favor of painting directly on the canvas, these works provide context for his training.

The installation also includes a selection of works that document the powerful impact Caravaggio had on Roman art, including A Life Study: A Monk Sleeping against a Pile of Books (ca. 1616) by Rutilio Manetti (1571–1639) and Basket of Fruit (ca. 1620) by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587– 1625). These show the ways in which the artists who followed Caravaggio continued to reveal the fiction of art, from highlighting the real-life models who sat for them to emphasizing the imperfections in the subjects of their still life paintings.

The exhibition concludes with the Morgan’s remarkable portrait drawing of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577–1633) by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). Borghese, the collector largely responsible for the Galleria Borghese, was the early owner of Boy with a Basket of Fruit, which has been part of the Borghese collection since 1607.

Caravaggio’s “Boy with a Basket of Fruit” in Focus is curated by John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Department Head of Drawings and Prints, and Director of Curatorial Affairs. An illustrated brochure with an introductory essay written by Marciari will be offered in the gallery at no charge to visitors thanks to the generosity of the Foundation for Italian Art & Culture (FIAC).