Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, formerly known as the Master of the Acquavella still life

Almost certainly in the Barberini collection, Rome, before 1812. 

A. Cottino (ed.), La Natura Morta al tempo di Caravaggio, exhibition catalogue, Rome 1995, pp. 154-155, no. 40;
A. Cottino, “Le Origini e lo sviluppo della natura morta barocca a Roma”, in Natura morta italiana tra Cinquecento e Settecento, Milan 2002, p. 162; 
A. Cottino, in M. Gregori (ed.), La Natura morta italiana da Caravaggio al Settecento, exhibition catalogue, Florence 2003, pp. 168-169, reproduced in color;
A. Cottino, L'Incantesimo dei sensi: Una collezione di nature morte del Seicento per il Museo Accorsi, Turin 2005, p. 44-47, 100-101, cat. no. 4, reproduced p. 45;
A. Coliva and D. Dotti (eds.), L’origine della natura morta in Italia. Caravaggio e il Maestro di Hartford, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2016-2017, pp. 242-243, cat. no. 27, reproduced in color, p. 195. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work is in very good condition overall. No retouches are visible under ultraviolet light. The paint layer is noticeably dirty. The canvas has an old glue lining. There is a thin original addition across the top edge and another about 4 inches from the bottom edge. The lining is good. The palette would brighten significantly if the picture is cleaned. Older restorations and thinness would become apparent, but there do not appear to be any unusual condition issues. The foliage above the still life would gain more clarity in particular if the picture were restored.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This beautifully arranged Basket of fruit on a stone ledge by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi is both an important and evocative example of the first generation of Roman still life painting. Completed sometime in the first quarter of the 17th century, it dramatically exemplifies the advances made in the still-life genre in the early seicento. What appears to be a straightforward display of fruit is in fact a highly thought out and studied composition which incorporates the lessons of Caravaggio's groundbreaking, realistic approach to the genre.  The dynamic artistic environment in which this Basket of fruit on a stone ledge was created cannot be overstated. Certainly, Caravaggio was the leading proponent of the genre, if not through the number of independent still lifes he executed, then through the obvious skill and bold refinement he brought to its development. Without question, his Basket of Fruit (Fiscella) (fig.1, 1599, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan) emerges as perhaps the most strikingly original contribution to Italian still life painting. Indeed, the wicker basket, and the manner in which it convincingly hangs over the stone ledge, immediately recall Caravaggio's own example from the Ambrosiana Fiscella.

The lower left corner of the composition is inscribed with an inventory number, 439, which has been most likely identified as that from the Barberini-Sciarra collection. This particular inventory number almost certainly corresponds with a list drawn up in 1812 on the occasion of a division of assets between the Barberini and Sciarra families.¹  There are other extant pictures with this same provenance bearing inventory numbers of the same type, including a Portrait of Don Giulio Cesare Barberini di Sciarra, Prince of Palestrina, today in a private collection (see E.P. Bowron, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, New Haven and London 2016, vol. II, p. 413, cat. no. 333, inscribed with 435).

Born in Viterbo in 1587, Cavarozzi arrived in Rome in circa 1600. He soon came into contact with the Crescenzi family, who would become his most important patrons: not only would Cavarozzi study in the academy of art established by Giovanni Battista Crescenzi (1577–1635) but he eventually assumed the name of Bartolomeo del Crescenzi. He moved into the family palazzo near the Pantheon, where he was probably trained by the late-mannerist painter Cristoforo Roncalli, known as Pomarancio, who was also closely associated with the Crescenzi family. Pomarancio's influence can be felt in Cavarozzi's earliest known work, dated 1608, a Saint Ursula and her Companions, today in the church of San Marco in Rome.³Compared with Cavarozzi’s later Caravaggesque phase it is a rather dull work which embodies that turn-of-the-century style of Roman art which had not yet embraced or understood Caravaggism. Little is known of Cavarozzi’s œuvre during the first half of the 1610s but by around 1615 he had fully adopted Caravaggio's manner. 

1. See literature, Cottino 2005, p. 46.