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One
of the most bizarre and distinctive painters
in the whole of art history, Giuseppe Arcimboldo
(1527-1593) owes his reputation to the series
of composite portraits of heads made up of a
variety of objects, both natural and man-made.
Most of these paintings were created at the
court of Rudolf II, who hired Arcimboldo as
his court painter, placing him at the centre
of Rudolf's eccentric menagerie of artists,
scientists and charlatans. In 1591 he produced
his masterpiece, Vertumnus, an allegorical portrait
of his master.
Rudolf II as the Roman god of metamorphoses
in nature and life, with Rudolf's face made
up of fruit and flowers, symbolising the perfect
balance between nature and harmony that his
reign allegedly represented. Arcimboldo died
in 1593.
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