All paintings, sculptures, musicals, etc. referenced will have a corresponding picture on the right side of the home page of the blog under the appropriate title.

Guiseppe Arcimboldo (pronounced Gew-seppy Arc-em-boldo)

"The Water" Oil on Wood.

This painting by Guiseppe Arcimboldo (b. ca. 1530, Milano, d. 1593, Milano [This reads as birth circa 1530 in Milano, death 1593 in Milano]) is called "The Water." He grew up in the culmanation of the Renaissance and even had a start tutelage under Leonardo da Vinci. He was court painter who had to make copies of monotonous paintings of every little speck of "royalty." Needless to say, he got bored. He began to paint people as head composed of various inamimate objects.

He gave his paintings very simple names based on the matter he used to make the head of a person. He would take different elements of a season (spring, summer...) and put them together in interesting shapes to make a head. He also used more difficult things to build a head and succeeded as well. He used books, fire and even fish to create amazing themes.

"The Water" uses fish, pearls and other recognizable icons of the sea to create this particular head. He painted it in 1566 and this was remarkably unconventional subject matter. Many other artists were busy painting Madonnas and Mythology.

This painting is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.

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