Renaissance Artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo - Surprisingly Modern

This article is inspired by a post, Face Art, by @Sajib. He displays modern Face Art, which is a quite fascinating subject, but the idea is not entirely new. Some of the images in @Sajib's post are in Arcimboldo's style, although they are based on photos rather than paintings, and I'm pretty sure that the artist is influenced by Arcimboldo's work.

So, who was Giuseppe Arcimboldo?

He was a Milanese painter, 1527-1593, and is best known for his heads and faces, which were made of objects, such as vegetables, roots and fruit, sometimes even books and fish. He was a skilled painter, who also was a court portraitist at two different Habsburg courts. Although he made other art, more conventional for his time, it is his heads of vegetables, roots and fruit that are best remembered.

Here we have one of Arcimboldo's most famous paintings. It is a portrait of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, at whose court Arcimboldo was a court portraitist. He is painted as the Roman god of the seasons, Vertumnus. It's a painting from 1590–91. Original at Skokloster Castle, Sweden.

Below we have "Four Seasons in One Head", painting from about 1590. The Original at National Gallery of Art, U.S.

This is "Summer"from 1563. It is from a series, "The Four Seasons". The original is at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

And finally, we have "Water",from the series "The Four Elements" from 1566. The original at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Now, look at @Sajib's post, Face Art. Can you see the influence?

(Images of Arcimboldo's art are in the Public Domain)

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