In Milan, Fede Galizia (1578–1630), thought to have learned her craft from her miniaturist painter father, began (in childhood) her painstakingly detailed still lifes of cherries, apples, peaches and pears, with her trademark subdued, dark backdrops. Although Galizia never dated her work, her earliest still life, which scholars have described as the ‘first dated still life by an Italian artist’, is thought to be from 1602.
