One of the most historic Quintas on the island of Madeira, the Quinta da Achada was long associated with Madeira wine. In the 18th century it belonged to the firm Lamar Hill, Bisset & Co. who sold Madeira wine, and it then passed to another wine  merchant, William Penfold. Later, in 1807-8, it was the summer residence of the General Beresford, Governor of the island and Commander of the British forces there during the Napoleonic Wars.

Francesco Caldei has recently been identified as the painter who was born in Mantua but had moved to Rome by 1613 and shared a house with the Caravaggist Bartolomeo Manfredi, for whom he reportedly acted as a servant or pupil. Manfredi clearly introduced him to the naturalistic style favoured by Caravaggio and his followers, but Caldei was also influenced by the flower painters Tommaso Salini and Mario Nuzzi, who specialised in large floral displays erupting from elaborate vases.

In 1625 Caldei moved to Venice, where he become close to the painters Nicolas Regnier and Joseph Heintz the Younger, at times collaborating with the latter. He was almost certainly the author of the four paintings of fruit dispatched from Venice to the Duke of Mantua in 1648. His style would also incorporate the popular garland paintings, of flowers and fruit surrounding a small religious oval, as produced by Jan Brueghel the Younger and Daniel Seghers.

At times the artist also acted as an art agent, handling the dispatch of statues from a Venetian nobleman to Charles II, Duke of Mantua.