Journey to a painting: 'Spring', by Giuseppe Arcimboldo
In the distance, the visitor believes to distinguish a portrait . His footsteps adjust their gaze. As he gets closer, he appreciates the peonies and pansies that populate the hair, the roses that sprout on the lips and the daisies that shape the neck. Cabbage leaves, nettles and brambles dress the shoulders, and a lily supplants the hilt of the sword.
In his teste composte, or composite heads, Arcimboldo created characters out of elements of nature and everyday objects . Spring is part of the series dedicated to the seasons, painted in 1563 . The flower explosion draw the face of a young man. His smile conveys joy. The next piece: 'Summer' , advances towards adulthood loaded with peaches, plums, cherries and ears of wheat . In 'Fall' maturity is aggravated under bunches of grapes, figs and mushrooms. A pear marks the thick profile of the nose. An apple and a quince they draw rough folds on the forehead. 'Winter' he is a grumpy old man. His skin is bark. ivy covers the nape under bare branches.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Arcimboldo's work remained in the shadows until, in the thirties of the last century, it caught the attention of the surrealists. dali interpreted the juxtaposition of objects in the images of him under the key of the paranoid-critical method : “the spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the associations and interpretations of delusional phenomena”.
It is probable that the artist conceived some of his creations like whims . In the late Renaissance, this category alluded to the game of ingenuity that led to the monstrous, to the bizarre or to the extravagant.
The librarian manifests himself as a parody of the scholar as a man-book ; The roast encloses a visual game that reveals a portrait by turning a still life 180º. Both pieces respond to the playful-poetic vision suggested by Dalí. But Arcimboldo's images go beyond the game.
Giuseppe was born in Milan . He dedicated his youth to the design of stained glass windows and frescoes together with his father, who participated in the works of the cathedral. At thirty-five, his fame reached Maximilian II , Holy Roman Emperor, who appointed him a portraitist at the court of Vienna. his cousin, Philip II of Spain , mistrusted him because of his religious tolerance and his humanistic spirit.
'Fire (The Four Elements)'
Arcimboldo reached a privileged position at court . As a host, he was in charge of the decoration and staging of palace celebrations. As a portraitist, he enjoyed access to the emperor and his immediate circle. The first works he painted for Maximilian II they shaped the debates that he promoted in his environment.
Both he and his successor, Rudolf II , encouraged the study of natural sciences, astrology and alchemy. These disciplines were closely related. The minerals reflected the composition of the cosmos. The cycles of nature symbolized the transformation to which matter is subject . Alchemy sought to control these processes through the search for the fifth element and the philosopher's stone, which turned lead into gold. All this came together in the man, synthesis of the universe.
In 'Spring' , Arcimboldo recreated flowers and buds in the anatomy of the face with botanical precision, thus transforming the vegetal into the human. He followed the same process starting from the forms of the animal world in 'The elements'. Air, fire, earth and water responded to the cycle of the seasons in a cosmic system which, in turn, expressed itself in the four humors that governed the health and mental balance of the individual.
As in a cabinet of wonders, Arcimboldo composed in his pictorial objects a metaphor of the union of man and nature . The philosophical content did not invalidate the journey from fantasy to poetic image. "While rose and lily show the color in your gesture," said Garcilaso. No one has taken his verse that far.
'Spring' is exhibited at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
Journey to a painting: 'Spring', by Giuseppe Arcimboldo