Giuseppe Arcimboldo

1527 (Milan) / 1593 (Milan)
Living in : Milan
Working in : Milan

The aubergine nose, the ear in a corncob and the smile made of peas: in our search for the naturalness behind the anthropomorphic, we are more often than not content to assimilate the art of Giuseppe Arcimboldo to a simple game of eagle eye. A portraitist who is both classical and fantastic, as well as a dazzling director or melancholic philosopher - as he presents himself in his Self-portrait as a man of letters of 1587 - Arcimboldo nevertheless remains the "Leonardo da Vinci" of the Habsburgs, the one who announces a real malaise in civilization. Although the Milanese was trained as a painter in his father's studio and worked with him on Mannerist-style stained-glass windows for his city's cathedral, he was above all a poet, scholar and philosopher - just like Leonardo da Vinci.



Artist's issues


Issue 81






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