 Baschenis, along with the more eccentric 16th-century painter Milanese Arcimboldo, represents provincial outputs with idiosyncratic tendencies that appear to appeal to the discernment of forms and shapes rather than grand manner themes of religious or mythologic events.For Arcimboldo, the artifice is everything; for Baschenis, the items, man-made musical instruments, have a purpose and a beauty even in their silent geometry.One source for his photographic style of still life could be Caravaggio's early painting of peaches, or alternatively, Dutch paintings.