 |
Arcimboldo was originally appointed official portraitist to the emperor, which meant that he received duties such as copying ancient Habsburg portraits. He later abandoned the conventions of court portraiture and depicted his subjects in accordance with the same principles used in the series of Seasons and Elements.
Arcimboldo also took his figures from classical mythology: he depicted Rudolf II as Vertumnus, the ancient Roman god of vegetation, and painted several versions of Flora. He executed portraits made up of household equipments, such as the Cook and the Waiter. The Librarian and the Jurist are composed of books and manuscripts.
The reversible heads represents a special type of the composite heads. It was a fashion of the period to devise reversible image. In rhetoric such a figure is called a palindrome. Everything is still the same, says a true palindrome, whether you take things in one way or another. However, an Arcimboldo palindrome seems to say that everything can take on a different meaning. Arcimboldo's reversible heads allow for a dual interpretation when turned upside-down, delighting the viewer with their metamorphosis. Viewed in one direction, the picture shows a still-life, turned upside-down, the forms alchemically come to life to produce a face.
Three reversible heads by Arcimboldo are known: The Cook, The Vegetable Gardener and The Reversible Head with Basket of Fruit.
|
