Giuseppe Arcimboldo
The portraits made of vegetables and fruit.
Arcimboldo was a court artist in Vienna and Prague. Some of his heads composed of fruit, flowers or fish came to Sweden as spoils of war from Prague in 1648.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born in Milan around 1526. His father was a painter, and Giuseppe worked with him early on at Milan Cathedral, where he made designs for stained glass. He also designed a woven tapestry for Como Cathedral. His early career was thus entirely conventional.
In 1562 he was summoned to Vienna to work at the Habsburg court. He served three emperors: Ferdinand I, Maximilian II and Rudolf II, who moved the court to Prague. It was at court that he created his famous composite heads. The series The Seasons of 1563 and The Elements of 1566 show profiles made up of flowers, fruit, animals or objects. Winter’s face is a gnarled tree trunk and the head of Water is built from fish and shells. Several versions are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and in the Louvre.
The pictures are both jokes and learned puzzles. They were meant to amuse the court but also to celebrate the emperor as ruler over nature and the course of the year. At the same time they show careful observation of plants and animals, at a time when princes collected natural objects in their cabinets of curiosities. Arcimboldo also worked as an organiser of court festivities, designing costumes, carriages and decorations.
His best-known portrait is Vertumnus, in which Rudolf II is depicted as the Roman god of the seasons, with a face made of fruit and vegetables. When Swedish troops plundered Prague in 1648, large parts of Rudolf’s collections were taken to Sweden. Vertumnus and The Librarian, a head built of books, are now at Skokloster Castle.
Arcimboldo returned to Milan in 1587 and died there in 1593. After his death he was almost forgotten. In the 20th century he was rediscovered by the Surrealists, who saw him as a precursor, and today his pictures are among the most recognisable in the history of art.