Collage selfportrait project 1st eso

Have you heard of the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo?  He was an Italian painter in the 1500’s.  Arcimboldo art is so interesting! 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo- Italian painter. In the middle of the sixteenth century Arcimboldo made a normal debut with youthful works including designs for windows and tapestries respectively in Milan and Monza cathedrals and frescos for the cathedral of Como. None of these gave any inkling of the bizarre originality he would soon develop. In 1562 he was summoned to the Imperial court in Prague and almost immediately his original and grotesque fantasy was unleashed. He invented a portrait type consisting of painted animals, flowers, fruit, and objects composed to form a human likeness. Some are satiric portraits of court personages, and others are allegorical personifications.

Arcimboldo's style has been so often imitated over the centuries that it is sometimes difficult to make exact attributions. He has been seen by some as the forerunner of Surrealism in the 20th century, but, more to the point, he should be seen in his own context at the end of the Renaissance. This was a time when people (collectors and scientists alike) were beginning to pay more attention to nature. Arcimboldo really created the fantastic image of the court in Prague, creating costumes, set designs, and decorations. Emperor Rudolf II set him the task of researching and buying works of art and natural curiosities, as well as giving him countless commissions for paintings.

The Important Works: Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring (each painted in 1573; each located in the Louvre, Paris)

Students learned about Arcimboldo, were exposed to and inspired by his work, and then tried to create a composite head of their own. This project proved to be fun, strange, and challenging for the students. The students were encouraged not just to "fill" their head with items, but to try to make their features out of certain shapes or placement of items.