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Here Emperor Rudolph II is portrayed as Vertumnus, the Roman god of autumn, whoÕs main task it is to guard the orchards and to grant an abundance of fruit. Thus it is a tribute to the wise rulings of the Emperor who enables his subjects to harvest the rich fruit of the fields in peace. Arcimboldo painted this portrait towards the end of his life, in Milan. He had been allowed to return there, but only on the condition that he continued to work for the Emperor.

GIUSEPPE ARCIMBOLDO (CA. 1527-1593)

Initially, like his father, the Renaissance painter Arcimboldo worked as a painter on Milan Cathedral. This changed in 1562 when the Emperor of Hapsburg, Ferdinand I, summoned him to the royal court in Prague. Ferdinand’s successors, Maximillian II and Rudolph II, were also much taken with Arcimboldo’s marvelous talents and so, for nearly all of the rest of his life, he remained in the service of this court, not only as a painter, but also as an architect, a designer of bizarre settings and costumes, and an organizer of major festivities. His work was much appreciated both for its sense of craftsmanship as well as its artistic value, and its eccentric, if sometimes comical aspects, may have made a welcome change to the day-to-day harsh political reality. Arcimboldo owes his present-day fame to his artistic discovery of the composite head. He painted his first version of The Four Seasons, portraits composed of flowers, fruit, twigs and leaves, soon after his arrival in Prague.

ART BECOMES REALITY WITH THESE STATUE BUSTS
These somewhat bizarre fantasy representations of the human head look like comic book style constructions of good heroes and evil demons. They are amusing as a montage of vegetation, sea life, and book pages seeming overtaking the poor science fiction type person inside. They have a sort of monster style or sci-fi edge to them which any collector of the unusual and surreal would find amusing. What would they say if they could come alive?