Surreal Arcimboldo

A surrealist before his time, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526–1593) marked the history of art with his heads composed of various elements, such as visual puns. Famous in his time for his sense of invention, this Italian painter belongs to the curious family of Mannerists. Arcimboldo was a true court artist to the powerful Habsburg family of the Holy Roman Empire. Nature lover and scholar, he renewed the treatment of allegory through the grotesque repertoire. A time forgotten after his death, Arcimboldo experienced a second youth during the 20th century which rediscovered him.

It has been said of him

"So goes Arcimboldo, from play to great rhetoric, from rhetoric to magic, from magic to wisdom. » Roland Barthes, 1978

Arcimboldo, Summer , 1573 © Louvre Museum

His life

Born in Milan, Giuseppe Arcimboldo comes from a family of painters. His father, whom he would have assisted, works for the cathedral of Milan. Arcimboldo cut his teeth in the field of stained glass cartoons. He was then noticed and was commissioned for coats of arms for the Church. However, many gray areas remain regarding his formation and his beginnings.

Arcimboldo's notoriety seems to have been rapid, without anyone knowing the paths he took. In 1562, he was called to serve the court of the Habsburgs. He goes to Prague. He begins the Four Seasons series, allegories taking the form of imaginary portraits. Composed of fruits and plants, his faces renew the genre and immediately succeed. His portraits then have nothing grotesque and the princely context serves as a setting for the blossoming of his talent. Other series such as professions (the gardener, the librarian, etc.) or elements are collected by art lovers to enrich their cabinet of curiosities.

The "composite heads" are anthropomorphic still lifes. They hide a careful study of nature, the artist tirelessly drawing natural species, animals, and plants, just like his predecessor Leonardo da Vinci. Arcimboldo, moreover, seems to have been interested in the work of the Florentine, whose caricatures he knew of which may have inspired him. Although the taste for grotesque faces is found in a number of painters of his time, such as Hieronymus Bosch, Arcimboldo knew how to preserve a true originality. Besides, he had no pupils. Roland Barthes liked to describe him as a "rhetorician and magician", creator of sensitive rebuses and inspiration of the surrealists .

Without having the title of the official painter, Arcimboldo delighted the court of Maximilian II and Rudolf II for twenty years, between Prague and Vienna, participating in the design of the festivals and the pleasures of the sovereigns. For them, he paints pictures but also designs costumes, sets and banquets.

Arcimboldo ends his career , crowned with glory. After returning to Milan, after being made count palatine by Emperor Rodolphe II of Habsburg, he died in his native town at the age of 67.

His key works

Arcimboldo Winter 1573, © Louvre museum

Winter and Autumn , 1573

After he painted the first series of the Four Seasons, Arcimboldo made copies at the request of Maximilian II. The head of Winter, composed of a stump covered with ivy and citrus fruits, is a counterpart to that of Autumn. The image, we understand, illustrates the drying out of the body. The cycle can indeed be read as an allegory of the different ages of life. Arcimboldo shows himself in phase with the theories of the Renaissance-inspired by Antiquity. The organism is considered a microcosm that houses within itself the different elements of nature.

Arcimboldo Autumn 1573 © Louvre Museum

Summer is arguably Arcimboldo's most famous composite head. It mixes a multitude of fruits and vegetables, arranged skillfully. The imaginary portrait emerges from a braided rye doublet (the artist's signature appears on the character's epaulette). The framing of flowers is certainly later. This allegory full of abundance illustrates the eternal cycle of the seasons, symbol of prosperity of the Habsburg regime.

Arcimboldo, Librarian 1566 © Castel Skoskloster

Is it the original or its copy? The mystery remains concerning this curious work by Arcimboldo on the theme of trades. It could be a real portrait, that of the curator of the precious manuscripts to Maximilian II. The model is therefore identified with its function, the profession of books. The pyramidal shape of the body, composed of thick connected volumes, composes an A, like the hidden signature of the artist. This painting would have inspired Picasso to create his famous cubist portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.

seen in Beaux-Arts Magazine, Claire Maingon.

Video : documentary Arcimboldo