Flasks, pitchers, goblets, drinking-glasses, and above all vases of all types. And then other compositions, bouquets, garlands, wreaths, triumphs, centrepieces for tables, and fruit-stands. Flowers dominated the baroque still life scene, imposing itself as the subject preferred by the art market. From the very beginning of the genre, they occupied a role of absolute prominence; but they were often burdened with symbolic references and moral references. In general, cut flowers alluded to the transience of beauty. Each individual species had its own specific allegorical significance within a dense "floral language". In the more complex compositions, the allusion to the different seasons or to the cultivation of very rare specimens was often evident. Nevertheless, the fortune of floral subjects in baroque painting went beyond the certainly considerable horizon of allegory: an example of this is the lapse incurred by even a great still-life connoisseur and collector, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who cited Caravaggio's basket "of fruit" as a painting "in which flowers appear". As in other subjects into which still life is divided, several specialists can be numbered also in the field of flowers, such as the Roman Mario Nuzzi, nicknamed in fact "Mario dei Fiori" (he was the nephew of Tommaso Salini); the Florentine Andrea Scacciati, who was flanked by Bartolomeo Bimbi; the Neapolitan Andrea Belvedere and the Lombard Margherita Caffi.