Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Spring, 1573
oil on canvas
Paris, Louvre
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Summer, 1573
oil on canvas
Paris, Louvre
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Autumn, 1573
oil on canvas
Paris, Louvre
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Winter, 1573
oil on canvas
Paris, Louvre
Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy at the National Gallery of Art The bizarre yet scientifically accurate composite heads painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526–1593) will be exhibited together for the first time in the United States, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from September 19, 2010 through January 9, 2011]]>
Source: National Gallery of Art
Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy includes 16 of the most spectacular of these paintings of heads composed of plants, animals, and other objects. They are joined by 32 additional works, such as drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, small bronzes, illustrated books and manuscripts, and ceramics, to provide a context for Arcimboldo’s inventions, revealing his debt to established traditions of physiognomic and nature studies.
Painted singly or in a series, the heads are composed of imaginative combinations of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other objects appropriate to the themes Arcimboldo depicted, such as the Four Seasons and the Four Elements (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water). Highlights of Arcimboldo, 1526–1593: Nature and Fantasy include the complete series of paintings of the Four Seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter) from the Louvre, two Seasons and two Elements from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, as well as heads portraying various professions constructed from materials that signify those occupations. Also featured are several of the artist’s so-called “reversible” paintings, such as The Vegetable Gardener (c. 1590), where a bowl of vegetables turned upside-down becomes the image of a gardener. In the exhibition space, mirrors are installed beneath these paintings so that visitors can experience the Arcimboldo effect.
Although he worked for some 25 years as a court artist for two emperors, painting portraits and making designs for costumes, pageants, and festivals for his patrons, Arcimboldo is best known for his paintings of composite heads. The meaning of the heads has been much debated. Contemporaries referred to them as scherzi (jokes), as they were intended to be clever and amusing. At the same time they contain serious investigations of nature. In addition, the complex imagery of the heads, the imperial patrons for whom they were made, and the clear propagandistic function they had, in the form of copies disseminated throughout Europe, suggest their role as political allegories.
Providing a context for Arcimboldo’s paintings are Helmet in the Form of a Dolphin Mask (1540/1545) by the Milanese armorer Giovanni Paolo Negroli from the Gallery’s own collection, as well as pieces of colored earthenware with nature motifs by Bernard Palissy. Two groups of drawings, selected from the Gallery’s collection, offer further context: one represents nature studies, like Arcimboldo’s, by artists such as Dürer, Joris Hoefnagel, Hans Hoffmann, and Jacopo Ligozzi; the second presents grotesque heads by Leonardo and his pupil Francesco Melzi, both Arcimboldo’s predecessors in Milan.
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