Where is giuseppe arcimboldo from

He was also the court decorator and costume designer. King Augustus of Saxony, who visited Vienna in and , saw Arcimboldo's work and commissioned a copy of his "The Four Seasons" which incorporates his own monarchic symbols.

Arcimboldo's conventional work, on traditional religious subjects, has fallen into oblivion, but his portraits of human heads made up of vegetables, fruit and tree roots, were greatly admired by his contemporaries and remain a source of fascination today. Art critics debate whether these paintings were whimsical or the product of a deranged mind.

A majority of scholars hold to the view, however, that given the Renaissance fascination with riddles, puzzles, and the bizarre see, for example, the grotesque heads of Leonardo da Vinci, a fellow Milanese , Arcimboldo, far from being mentally imbalanced, catered to the taste of his times. Arcimboldo died in Milan, to which he retired after leaving the Habsburg service. It was during this last phase of his career that he produced the composite portrait of Rudolph II, as well as his self-portrait as the Four Seasons.

Most scholars are of the view that with his fascination with puzzles and riddles, he could not have suffered from mental imbalance. Today, Arcimboldo is elevated to the ranks of the best 16th-century artists. The last emperor Giuseppe Arcimboldo worked for was Rudolf I for 11 years. This period marked the peak of his career, particularly due to Rudolf's love for horticulture, exotic creatures and botany. He found the ultimate freedom to include extraordinary observations of animals and plants fetched from Europe by Rudolf's agents.

It was during this period that he painted a portrait of himself as Four Seasons and that of Rudolf II. His illustrious career was highly celebrated by his Italian Contemporaries, who honoured him with manuscripts and poetry. Before leaving for Prague, Rudolf II made Arcimboldo count palatine for his faithful and long service, and also awarded him 1, Rhenish guilders. Giuseppe Arcimboldo died a year later in from kidney stones at the age of Arcimboldo received notable recognition during his lifetime, but many historians did not take his art seriously.

Instead, they viewed the artist as just a quirky painter. However, in the rise of Surrealism in the s and the Dada anti-art movement, his visual expressionism was revived. His works were rediscovered in the 20th century by Salvador Dali and other Surrealist artists. Some of his popular paintings today include:.

Today -. Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian Mannerist painter who was born in in Milan and died in He continued to produce great works even towards the very end of his life, most notably his Self-portrait as the Four Seasons and the portrait of Rudolf II as the god of metamorphosis - Vertumnus Having petitioned the Emperor's permission several times, Arcimboldo finally left the Habsburg service in , departing Prague for his home city of Milan.

As a mark of Rudolf II's admiration for him, he was made Count Palatine in the same year and awarded Rhenish guilders for his "long, faithful and conscientious service. Many of Arcimboldo's works have been sadly lost as a result of the Swedish invasion of Prague in , during the Thirty Years' War. As such, the contemporary picture of his oeuvre is somewhat incomplete. Furthermore, of the works that are known, many, such as his conventional portraits and religious paintings, have been overlooked.

Rather, it is the portraits made up of fruits, vegetables, plants and animals that fascinate artists and critics today. These unique Mannerist paintings have even featured in films they are referenced in the Harry Potter films, for example , comics, novels and album covers.

But it was Museum of Modern Art director Alfred Barr's inclusion of his works in the s exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism that that did most to bring Arcimboldo renewed attention from the art world. Since then, art historians have re-evaluated Arcimboldo's highly individual style, elevating him to the rank of one of the greatest of 16th century Mannerists. The exhibition "The Arcimboldo Effect: Transformations of the face from the 16th to the 20th Century" at the Palazzo Grassi, Venice, meanwhile, prompted interest in his work from psychologists and scientists concerned with optical illusions, multiple images and face recognition.

In the American artist and filmmaker, Philip Haas, created four large-scale fiberglass sculptures in a three-dimensional homage to Arcimboldo's Four Seasons series. Haas stated: "Playing with Arcimboldo's imagination and reinterpreting it allowed me to make the Renaissance contemporary and make contemporary art have a root in the history of art.

Content compiled and written by Dawn Kanter. In place of the richly detailed facial features one typically expects in portraiture, there are clever arrangements of fruits, vegetables, plants, animals, and other elements. Arcimboldo was born into a family of painters. Before Arcimboldo redefined portraiture, he got his start working on two famed Italian buildings. During his 25 years working in the courts of the Holy Roman Empire, Arcimboldo would continue to design stained glass windows, tapestries, and theater costumes.

The artist would develop his madcap style during his tenure as a court portraitist. Maximilian II held a fascination with the natural world, and this interest in biology and other fields lured scientists and philosophers to his court. Arcimboldo created reproductions of the paintings in the seasons series on account of its wide acclaim.