Arcimboldo: the grandfather of surrealism in 16th century

in history •  8 years ago 


The job of a renaissance court portraitist was to produce likenesses of his sovereigns to display at the palace and give to foreign dignitaries or prospective brides. It went without saying the portraits should be flattering. Yet, in 1590, Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted his royal patron, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, as a heap of fruits and vegetables (above). With pea pod eyelids and a gourd for a forehead.
Lucky for Arcimboldo, Rudolf had a sense of humor. And he had probably grown accustomed to the artist’s visual wit. Arcimboldo served the Hapsburg family for more than 25 years.
Part scientist, part sycophant, part visionary, Arcimboldo was born in 1526 in Milan. His father was an artist, and Giuseppe’s early career suggests the standard Renaissance daily grind: he designed cathedral windows and tapestries rife with angels, saints and evangelists. Rudolf’s father, Maximilian II, the Hapsburg archduke and soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor, welcomed the painter in his Vienna court in the early 1560s. Arcimboldo remained with the Hapsburgs until 1587 and continued to paint for them after his return to Italy.
The Hapsburgs were hungry for imaginative works. Members of the dynasty were quick to emphasize their claims to greatness and promoted an avant-garde atmosphere in their court, which teemed with intellectuals.
Maximilian so liked this imagery that he and other members of his court dressed up as the elements and seasons in a 1571 festival orchestrated by Arcimboldo. (The emperor played winter.)
The Kunstkammer was looted during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), and a number of Arcimboldo’s paintings were carried off to Sweden. The composite heads disappeared into private collections, and Arcimboldo would remain rather obscure until the 20th century, when painters from Salvador Dali to Pablo Picasso are said to have rediscovered him. He has been hailed as the grandfather of Surrealism.
One painting singled out as unusually modern is The Librarian, c. 1566, a "triumph" of modern art in the 16th century, one art historian says. With its feather-duster beard and keys for eyes, it is said to portray the court historian Wolfgang Lazius, author of some 50 volumes. Today, Arcimboldo's paintings at the Louvre Museum in Paris are among the most popular in its collection.
http://audiorazgovornik.ru/interesnye-stati-na-anglijskom/853-arcimboldo-dedushka-surrealisma

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