Apples in a wicker basket with pomegranates and hollyhocks, on a table covered with a linen cloth

Blas de Ledesma was one of the earliest exponents of Spanish still-life painting and his works influenced a younger generation of Spanish artists, including Juan van der Hamen y León and Pedro de Camprobin. He is documented in Granada between 1602 and 1614, where, in addition to painting still lifes, he designed a stucco vault for the decoration of the Alhambra and was renowned for his decorative fresco grotesques. The stark design and symmetrical composition, with a wicker basket brimming with fruit flanked by flowers, is entirely consistent with the only known signed still life by the artist, now in the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (inv. no. 57.11).