I love art, but I am no art historian, critic, curator, or expert. I learn new things about art all the time, and it pleases me no end. (Click here for a link to Daily Art Magazine, which is wonderful. The woman who created it also has an app. You will learn so much from the app and the web site, and find joy every day with both.)
Today I learned--from a different source--that Caravaggio's painting Basket of Fruit, a famous Still Life painting by a famous artist is about mortality. Kevin West writes in an article for Surface (December 8, 2017):
"The still life freezes a moment in lifelike detail--life, stilled . . . a spotty apple reminds us that time will ruin beauty. The work is dazzling to look at and heartbreaking to contemplate . . . artists use food to remind us we'll die."
Caravaggio painted this about 1595. Take a few minutes to study the painting below and then see what you come up with for a poem. Maybe you will write about death. Maybe you will write about fruit. Or Caravaggio. Or life in 1595 in Rome.
No matter what you do in your ekphrastic poem, have fun! Inspiration is just the beginning of the process!
