ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe (b. 1526, Milano, d. 1593, Milano) |
Winter1563Oil 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.
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