Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-93) was born in Milan, son of an artist. Dad worked for Fabbrica Office in the Milan Duomo, that oversaw the development of the city’s cathedral architecture and art.
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Earth c1570
Private collection, Vienna
In the early 1560s, Arcimboldo was c36 when he left Italy to become a court portraitist to Hapsburg emperors Ferdinand I, Maximilian II in Vienna & Rudolf II in Prague. In 25 years in Holy Roman Empire courts, he designed stained glass windows, tapestries and theatre costumes. He mainly spent time browsing the Hapsburgs’ private collections of artworks and natural objects in Kunstkammer/art chamber.
At first Arcimboldo's conventional work concentrated on traditional religious themes. However The Hapsburgs wanted imaginative works that emphasised their claims to greatness and promoted an avant-garde atmosphere in their intellectual courts. So his later, redefined portraits of human heads were made differently. In place of the richly detailed facial features typically found in portraits, there were clever displays of fruits, vegetables, plants and animals. Both psychologically acute and scientifically accurate, his portraits were celebrated by his patrons & contemporaries, expanding traditional thinking. Although they were greatly admired, art critics debated whether these paintings were from a whimsical or a deranged mind. Most scholars believed that given the Renaissance fascination of the bizarre, this Renaissance Italian painter actually catered to contemporary taste.
Art historian Thomas Kaufmann wrote Arcimboldo: Visual Jokes, Natural History and Still-Life Painting 2009, noting the art conveyed the majesty of the rulers. The works were meant to amuse, but they also symbolised the: majesty of the ruler and power of the ruling family. Humour yes, but humour resolved seriously. Maximilian so liked this imagery that he and his courtiers celebrated in a 1571 festival orchestrated by Arcimboldo.
Maximilian II was fascinated with the natural world, and this interest in biology and other fields lured scientists and philosophers to his court. No surprise, then, that Arcimboldo’s first projects for Maximilian II the series The Four Seasons, which he started in 1563, and The Elements, completed in 1566, showed that love of science. Four Seasons comprised four profile portraits of figures created from natural materials like fruits, vegetables, flowers and plant life specific to summer, autumn, winter or spring. The Elements 1566 (Earth, Water, Fire and Air) featured haunting depictions of sea creatures, pearls and birds.
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This was the era of botany and zoology, when artists included Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Arcimboldo’s predecessor in Milan, pursued natural studies. Arcimboldo suggested a scientific fluency that highlighted his patron’s learnedness. Every plant, every flower was recognisable!
Even the botany carried the theme of empire. Arcimboldo’s composites incorporated exotic specimens eg corn and eggplant, which sophisticated viewers knew were rare cultivars from the New World; where many European rulers hoped to extend their influence!
Arcimboldo’s subjects grow more varied over the years when he created portraits of specific professions and biblical figures while continuing to further his interest in natural phenomena. Among his most idiosyncratic paintings are The Librarian c1566; The Cook c1570 had a serving dish atop a wooden table that, when turned upside down, revealed a menacing face; and Adam and Eve 1578 showed the faces of a woman and a man composed of groupings of human bodies. King Augustus of Saxony visited Vienna in 1570 and 1573, and saw Arcimboldo's work; he quickly commissioned a copy of Four Seasons with his own monarchic symbols.
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In Milan in 1587, Arcimboldo continued painting meticulous groupings of lush fruits and vegetables, & distinctive plants. Four Seasons in One Head c1590, which some art historians considered a self-portrait, featured an angular face cut from a withered tree trunk and adorned with a pair of cherries on its ear; apples, grapes, and leaves atop its head; and flowers on its bust. Was it an earnest contemplation of mortality? Arcimboldo died in Milan in 1593.
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Some of young Arcimboldo’s earliest works were 1549 commissions for stained glass windows at the Duomo. In 1556 he worked on Duomo di Monza stained glass windows and frescoes. In 1558, he drew the cartoon for a large tapestry of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, in Como Cathedral.
Private collection, Vienna
In the early 1560s, Arcimboldo was c36 when he left Italy to become a court portraitist to Hapsburg emperors Ferdinand I, Maximilian II in Vienna & Rudolf II in Prague. In 25 years in Holy Roman Empire courts, he designed stained glass windows, tapestries and theatre costumes. He mainly spent time browsing the Hapsburgs’ private collections of artworks and natural objects in Kunstkammer/art chamber.
At first Arcimboldo's conventional work concentrated on traditional religious themes. However The Hapsburgs wanted imaginative works that emphasised their claims to greatness and promoted an avant-garde atmosphere in their intellectual courts. So his later, redefined portraits of human heads were made differently. In place of the richly detailed facial features typically found in portraits, there were clever displays of fruits, vegetables, plants and animals. Both psychologically acute and scientifically accurate, his portraits were celebrated by his patrons & contemporaries, expanding traditional thinking. Although they were greatly admired, art critics debated whether these paintings were from a whimsical or a deranged mind. Most scholars believed that given the Renaissance fascination of the bizarre, this Renaissance Italian painter actually catered to contemporary taste.
Art historian Thomas Kaufmann wrote Arcimboldo: Visual Jokes, Natural History and Still-Life Painting 2009, noting the art conveyed the majesty of the rulers. The works were meant to amuse, but they also symbolised the: majesty of the ruler and power of the ruling family. Humour yes, but humour resolved seriously. Maximilian so liked this imagery that he and his courtiers celebrated in a 1571 festival orchestrated by Arcimboldo.
Maximilian II was fascinated with the natural world, and this interest in biology and other fields lured scientists and philosophers to his court. No surprise, then, that Arcimboldo’s first projects for Maximilian II the series The Four Seasons, which he started in 1563, and The Elements, completed in 1566, showed that love of science. Four Seasons comprised four profile portraits of figures created from natural materials like fruits, vegetables, flowers and plant life specific to summer, autumn, winter or spring. The Elements 1566 (Earth, Water, Fire and Air) featured haunting depictions of sea creatures, pearls and birds.
Spring, 1563
The allegorical paintings were full of visual Hapsburgs puns. The nose and ear of Fire were made of fire strikers, one of the imperial family’s symbols. Winter wore a cloak monogrammed with an M for Maximilian like a garment the emperor did own. Earth had a lion skin a la Hercules, to whom the Hapsburgs always traced their lineage.
This was the era of botany and zoology, when artists included Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Arcimboldo’s predecessor in Milan, pursued natural studies. Arcimboldo suggested a scientific fluency that highlighted his patron’s learnedness. Every plant, every flower was recognisable!
Even the botany carried the theme of empire. Arcimboldo’s composites incorporated exotic specimens eg corn and eggplant, which sophisticated viewers knew were rare cultivars from the New World; where many European rulers hoped to extend their influence!
Arcimboldo’s subjects grow more varied over the years when he created portraits of specific professions and biblical figures while continuing to further his interest in natural phenomena. Among his most idiosyncratic paintings are The Librarian c1566; The Cook c1570 had a serving dish atop a wooden table that, when turned upside down, revealed a menacing face; and Adam and Eve 1578 showed the faces of a woman and a man composed of groupings of human bodies. King Augustus of Saxony visited Vienna in 1570 and 1573, and saw Arcimboldo's work; he quickly commissioned a copy of Four Seasons with his own monarchic symbols.
The Librarian c1566
Skokloster Castle, Sweden
A renaissance court artist had to produce flattering portraits of his sovereigns, to display at the palace and give to foreign dignitaries or brides. Arcimboldo remained with the Hapsburgs till 1587 and continued to paint for them after returning to Milan. It was in this last phase of Arcimboldo’s career, 1590, that he produced the composite portrait of his royal patron Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II. Arcimboldo chose peapod eyelids and a gourd forehead, looking less royal and more vegetable.
A renaissance court artist had to produce flattering portraits of his sovereigns, to display at the palace and give to foreign dignitaries or brides. Arcimboldo remained with the Hapsburgs till 1587 and continued to paint for them after returning to Milan. It was in this last phase of Arcimboldo’s career, 1590, that he produced the composite portrait of his royal patron Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II. Arcimboldo chose peapod eyelids and a gourd forehead, looking less royal and more vegetable.
In Milan in 1587, Arcimboldo continued painting meticulous groupings of lush fruits and vegetables, & distinctive plants. Four Seasons in One Head c1590, which some art historians considered a self-portrait, featured an angular face cut from a withered tree trunk and adorned with a pair of cherries on its ear; apples, grapes, and leaves atop its head; and flowers on its bust. Was it an earnest contemplation of mortality? Arcimboldo died in Milan in 1593.
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The Kunstkammer was looted late in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), and some Arcimboldo’s paintings were carried from Rudolf II's collection to Sweden. A handful of his famous works, including Vortumnus c1590 and The Cook, are still part of Swedish collections today. Vortumnus was the Roman god of the seasons. The Prague Picture Gallery has some of his art from Prague Castle. Despite the years damage to the Prague Castle Gallery caused by war and fires, the gallery is very impressive.
Rudolf as Vortumnus, c1590
Skokloster Castle, Sweden.
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Four Seasons in One Head, c1590
National Gallery of Art, U.S.Skokloster Castle, Sweden.
The legacy of Arcimboldo’s multiple images were only rediscovered in the early C20th by Surrealist artists, Arcimboldo art appeared in the works of Pablo Picasso, George Grosz, Rene Magritte and especially Salvador Dalí. The 1987 Arcimboldo Effect Exhibition at Venice’s Palazzo Grassi highlighted the meanings of the Grandfather of Surrealism’s art. And Arcimboldo shows have recently been at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC 2010-11; Palazzo Barberini in Rome 2017; and now Exhibition Arcimboldo Face to Face, Centre Pompidou-Metz, May-Nov 2021.
