Shop art print and framed art Four Seasons in the One Head by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

The Seasons is a series of four paintings by Giuseppe Arcimboldo in 1563, 1569, 1572 and 1573. They were presented to Maximilian II of Habsburg, along with the Four Elements (painted in 1566). They are accompanied by a poem by Giovanni Battista Fonteo (1546-1580), which explains their allegorical meaning. His paintings glorify the House of Habsburg, but not without irony, for beneath these phytomorphic portraits we can sense the influence of Italian caricature, a genre dear to Leonardo da Vinci. The variety of origins of the plants depicted testifies to the vastness of the imperial family's territories, and the allegorical use of the seasons probably serves to signify the permanence of their empire. Each painting consists of a profile portrait, composed of elements reminiscent of the season. Winter looks like Spring, Autumn like Summer. The four seasons are represented in the guise of a man, from adolescence to old age. Of the original version, we still have Winter and Summer, exhibited in Vienna, Austria, and Spring, exhibited at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Among the best-known versions are those in the Musée du Louvre, copies made by the painter at the request of Maximilian II as a gift for Augustus of Saxony. The paintings feature a floral frame that was not present in the first [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the renaissance period. It belongs to the italian renaissance style.

 

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