FRUIT DETECTIVE LOOKS TO RENAISSANCE PAINTINGS. Isabella Dalla Ragione studies Renaissance paintings, but not the way most art historians do. The Italian scholar is a so-called "fruit detective" who combs through historic paintings for any signs of rare fruit and vegetables that are no longer eaten today, because of industrialized changes to agricultural practices, the Smithsonian Magazine writes.
Dalla Ragione wants to restore Italy’s “disappearing fruit agriculture,” once was widely cultivated in the 16th century, but since vanished, as Italy’s produce diversity continues to drop. Slowly, through her study of 15th and 16th century paintings, Dalla Ragione has been rediscovering lost fruit, which have led her to track down often strange-looking, missing apples, cherries, and other produce in vegetable gardens and orchards across the country.
Here nonprofit Archeologia Arborea is simultaneously working to help farmers preserve and bring back these forgotten fruits. What, we wonder, does she think of Cattelan’s banana?