1. Giuseppe Arcimboldo Mannerist Pronounced: Joo-zep-ay Arch-im-bold-oh
Italian Renaissance painter
Mannerist
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Joo-zep-ay Arch-im-bold-oh)
painter during Italian Renaissance
Classified as part of the Mannerism art movement
*Everything will be explained in more depth throughout the Power Point.
Featured: self-portrait

2. Started career as a stained glass designer for local cathedrals at 21 years old, just like his father.
Artist father—Biagio Arcimboldo
Giuseppe started career as stained glass designer, just like his father
For local cathedrals
21 years old
Much of his stained glass found in the Cathedral of Milan (Duomo).
Featured: left “St. Catherine Talks to the Emperor About the True Faith” and right “The Birth of Saint Catalina”
“St. Catherine Talks to the Emperor about the True Faith” in the Cathedral of Milan
“The Birth of Saint Catalina” in the Cathedral of Milan

3. Portraitist to emperors Ferdinand I, Maximilian II and Rudolph II.
Also, served as their decorator, costume designer, architect, stage designer, engineer, water engineer, and overall art specialist.
“Vertumnus” = one of his most famous artworks, which was made to resemble Rudolph II
Served as a court portraitist for most of life
Ferdinand I, Maximilian II and Rudolph II (all emperors)
Retired under Rudolph II
Continued to make art for RII after retirement
He was also…
court decorator, costume designer, architect, stage designer, engineer, water engineer, and altogether art specialist for the emperors.
Artwork showed not only human nature and human beings, but also how closely they were related.
“Vertumnus”
most recognized portrait
made to resemble Rudolph II
First example of composite portrait,
We will touch on that in a couple more slides.
Featured: left “Vertumnus”
Example Questions: What does it look like Vertumnus is made of? What different kinds of fruits, veggies, flowers, plants do you see? What are his eyes made of?
“Vertumnus”

4. Mannerism shows the close relationship between humans and nature
How do the following portraits demonstrate this?
Classified as a “Mannerist” of 16th century.
What is Mannerism?
Mannerism was a transitional period from ,
adopted some artistic elements from the High Renaissance and influenced the other elements in the Baroque Period.
Mannerists tended to show close relationship between human and nature
How do the portraits show this human/nature relationship?
Featured: left “The Spring,” right “The Lawyer”
Example Question: Why do you think these portraits were made up of these particluar objects?
Ex. “The Lawyer”—fur coat and head made of meats = luxury items, gluttonous, etc.
Books and papers = scholarly
“The Spring”
“The Lawyer”

5. Composite Portraits Best known for making composite portraits
Wove fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, books together to make paintings of people he knew
Best known for creating imaginative portraits of heads made completely of objects like fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, books, etc.
painted representations of these objects arranged so that the whole collection of objects made likeness to the portrait subject.
These composite portraits were greatly admired by his contemporaries and remain a source of fascination today.
At a distance, his portraits look like normal human portraits but at a closer look one may notice that individual objects in each painting were overlapped together to make various anatomical shapes of a human.
Each object was related by characterization.
For instance, “The Librarian”-- Used objects that signified book culture (like the curtain that created individual study rooms in a library and the animal tails which were used as dusters).
He criticized rich people's misbehavior and conveyed to others what was happening at that time in history, through his art.
“The Librarian” was criticizing wealthy people who collected books in order to satisfy their ownership, instead of actually reading the books.
Many of his works have hidden criticisms, commentary or and/or jokes but many of those have been lost on audiences as time progressed.
Featured: left “The Librarian”
Example Questions: What kinds of objects do you see in this portrait of “The Librarian?” Why do you think they were used? From what we have seen so far, what do you think a composite portrait is?
“The Librarian”

6. The Four Seasons
One of Giuseppe's most famous composite collections, “The Four Seasons.”
Featured: left “Winter,” right “Spring”
Example Questions: What are the four seasons? What objects in each portrait convey each season? Why do you think Giuseppe used the objects he did to create the “Four Seasons” portraits?
“Spring”
“Winter”

7. The Four Seasons The Four Seasons” continued.
Featured: left “Summer,” right “Autumn”
Example Questions: Why do you think Giuseppe used the objects that he did to create this “Four Seasons” portraits? What objects in each portrait convey each season? How do you like the “Four Seasons?” Which one is your favorite? How do they make you feel?
“Summer”
“Autumn”

8. The Four Elements
Another one of Giuseppe's most famous composite collections, “The Four Elements.”
Featured: left “Air,” right “Fire”
Example Questions: What did he use to convey the “Air” and “Fire” portraits? What kinds of birds do you see in “Air?” What makes up the hair in “Fire?” Which do you like better? Why?
“Air”
“Fire”

9. The Four Elements The Four Elements” continued.
Featured: left “Earth,” right “Water”
Example Questions: What did Giuseppe use in these portraits? Why? How many different animals and sea creatures do you see? Do you have a favorite of the “Four Elements?” Do you like “Four Seasons” or “Four Elements” better? Why? How are they alike? How are they different?
“Earth”
“Water”

10. “Multiple Image” Paintings
Using everyday objects, the portraits were decoration and still life paintings at the same time, but especially in these last two slides.
These visual palindromes are often referred to as “mulitple image” or “double meaning” paintings.
When looked at one way, they appear to be regular still life paintings
when flipped over, they become composite portraits
Giuseppe’s paintings were rediscovered in the early 20th century by Surrealist artists
like Salvador Dali
noted as having said that Giuseppe Arcimboldo was the “grandfather of Surrealism.”
Featured: “The Cook”
Example Questions: What do you see in the picture to the left? How about the picture to the right? How is this different/similar to the composite portraits?
“The Cook”

11. Multiple image”/”double meaning” paintings continued.
Featured: “The Vegetable Gardener”
Example Questions: What do you see in the picture on the left? What do you see in the picture on the right? How do you feel about these compared to the other portraits?
“The Vegetable Gardener”