GIUSEPPE ARCIMBOLDI

DETTO

L'ARCIMBOLDO

1527 - 1593
Giuseppe Arcimboldi

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Looking at his paintings one would think they were the work of a die-hard vegetarian, or a follower of macrobiotics, or maybe even a vendor of fruit and vegetables. However, one thing is certain, he was an expert gardener.

Much has been said about Giuseppe, called Arcimboldo. Through the intrigue created by his fruits and vegetables, his flowers and animals he captured the worldís attention to Veniceís Palazzo Grassi where his fantastic paintings, a bridge between Mannerism and Allegorism, are exhibited.

Arcimboldo, a prominent painter already in his own times, was born around 1527 in Milan, where he began his artistic career. In 1562 he moved to Vienna and became royal painter for emperors Ferdinand, Maximilian and Rudolph. It is the latter who provided the inspiration for the portrait titled Vertunno.

Examples of his caricatures, portraits and allegories are mainly found in Viennaís Museum and Grazís Johanneum. In addition, he was also commissioned scene paintings and costumes.

During the Nineteenth Century his works were rediscovered and reinterpreted as precursors to certain aspects of Surrealism. Today, his works are interpreted in many different ways.

Arcimboldo was born of a medium-upper class family which counted among its members archbishops -among them his grandfather-, lawmakers and artists - his father Biagio - . His biography has, however, a gap spanning his youth. It is indeed possible that he may have spent those years in Isernia. In fact, the name of the town appears in the painting titled The Lawmaker, made in 1566. It is a portrait of a man having two chickens for cheeks and a fish for beard. The body of the grotesque lawmaker is made-up of two books and on the edge of one appears the word ISERNIA. It is possible that the painting is a tribute to the famous lawmaker Andrea díIsernia, a major exponent of Iserniaís law school, who was born there around 1230 and died in Naples in 1316. DíIserniaís fame was such that it extended from Naplesí Kingdom to the rest of Italy and beyond, and it was the main reference point for lawmaking in the Middle Ages up until the French Revolution.

The story has the attraction of a murder mystery, and itís up to the reader to solve it. Mantime, why not place Arcimboldoís lawmaker next to the Fraterna fountain as symbol of Isernia?

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