Flowers in a Grotesque Vase

Flowers in a Grotesque Vase is a remarkable still life painted around 1635 by Orsola Maddalena Caccia, one of the most singular and spiritually driven artists of the Italian Baroque. A nun of the Ursuline order, Caccia spent her life within the convent of Moncalvo in Piedmont, where she transformed religious devotion into exquisite visual poetry. Her works — largely created as gifts for fellow sisters and patrons of the Church — blend naturalistic observation with profound theological meaning.

In this luminous composition, an ornate vase adorned with grotesque motifs overflows with a lush, carefully arranged bouquet of blossoms rendered with extraordinary botanical precision. Each flower carries symbolic weight deeply rooted in Catholic iconography: roses evoking the Virgin Mary, lilies signifying purity, and tulips reflecting divine grace. The vase itself, with its fantastical decorative figures, contrasts beautifully with the organic softness of the blooms, creating a meditative tension between the earthly and the sacred.

Painted in oil on canvas, the work exemplifies the Baroque ideal of combining sensory richness with spiritual contemplation. Housed in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, this composition remains a testament to Caccia's unique voice in seventeenth-century painting.

This premium stretched canvas reproduction is printed on museum-quality matte canvas and hand-wrapped around a solid 0.75" gallery wrap frame — ready to display and built to last.