Caravangeo was one of the first of the Italian Baroque artists to sell out. He was already on rocky ground with Painter's Union #36 due to his dabbling in Japanese manga, but this is the picture that really put the kibosh on his career.

To add insult to injury, his contract with the German knife company required that he do a sales pitch at the unveiling, so the spectators had to endure 15 minutes of glowing praise about cutting edges, balance, grips and the other minutiae of the cutlery trade, plus the offer of a free set of poultry shears and a butcher's steel for professional-quality sharpening if they acted in the next 15 minutes.

Although he was quite persuasive and sold a dozen carving sets in as many minutes, the union had been pushed beyond its tolerance and voted to blacklist him, even after he offered them a complimentary 7" santoku Japanese chef's knife with any order and, of course, a tradesman's discount.
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Acquisition funded in part by a grant from Williams-Sonoma®, "where the elite treat their meat" and by a partial grant from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Adolescents)

 

 

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