ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
(b. 1526, Milano, d. 1593, Milano)

Winter

1563
Oil on panel, 67 x 51 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Winter originally belonged to a series of the Four Seasons of which the Summer is also in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

The profile bust is composed entirely of a gnarly tree-trunk. The nose is the cracked growth of a branch, moss forming the stubble of a beard and intricate branches forming the scrubby hair, in which an evergreen ivy grows. The mouth is composed of two tree fungi. The vacant, squinting eye is ingeniously created through a crack in the bark. From the breast protrudes a sprig carrying two lemons. Again, the clothing is made of woven straw, in which one can make out a large M (for Maximilian II) and the firesteel referring to the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 11 minutes):
Vivaldi: Concerto in F minor RV 297 op. 8 No. 4 (Winter)