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Look at the apple, look at the peach, how round and full of life,
cheeks to right and left; notice, too, my eyes, of which one cerise, the
other mulberry. Outside I look a monster, inside I bear noble traits,
concealing a royal portrait.
Don Gregorio Comanini, The Vertumnus of Arcimboldo 1591
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Alchemists attempting to make gold,
astrologers studying the stars and the constellations and
physicists desiring to build a machine of perpetual motion and to square
the circle were amongst the Laputan circle of scholars that Emperor
RudolfII (1576—1612) assembled at Hradcany castle in Prague. The most
important member of the Habsburg dynasty ever to reside there, Rudolf II
was renowned as a generous patron of the arts. Nonetheless, many of his
contemporaries were convinced that his hobbies kept him from the more
pressing business of rulmg. They were particularly suspicious of the
Emperor's passion for all things arcane: mythology, occult phenomena and
the mysterious powers of nature. In short, the Emperor was regarded as an
introverted weakling who was incapable of making decisions. Needless to
say, Rudolf could afford to ignore such objections. He was supported in
all his interests by a fatherly friend, a man of the "keenest intellectual
powers", who was as highly respected as widely read and scholarly. This
cultured man came from Milan and was named
Giuseppe
Arcimboldo.
In his youth, Arcimboldo had designed stained-glass windows for Milan
Cathedral. In 1562 he was called by Emperor Ferdinand I, Rudolf's
grandfather, to the Habsburg Court, where he stayed on to serve three
generations of the dynasty with great loyalty. He is first mentioned in
the imperial records of 1565 as an official portrait painter to the Court.
However, he was not just a painter. "Arcimboldo's
noble intellect invented a great many clever, charming and unusual things
for the magnificent revels held at Court", a contemporary reported. The
masques
Arcimboldo
designed as settings for those court festivities must have been
impressive. He once staged a mythological parade with real elephants and
fake dragons, which were really horses in disguise. Today
Arcimboldo
is remembered primarily for his witty allegorical paintings. Flowers,
fruits, fishes, birds, roots and even books are ingeniously arranged to
form recognisable portraits. Drawing on botany, landscape architecture and
hunting,
Arcimboldo
found all the inspiration he needed in the Habsburg "Wunderkammer", or
cabinet of curiosities, which was overflowing with marvels: giant shells,
sword fish, mummies, rare precious stones, stuffed animals and exotic
artefacts from India. There was even a "devil confined in a glass".
Arcimboldo
did not look on his paintings as mere conceits in the Renaissance
tradition; he meant them to be profoundly symbolic. The portrait of Rudolf
II as Vertumnus, the Roman god of vegetation and the seasons, was
certainly not meant as a travesty or a parody. On the contrary, the court
portrait painter's intention was to honour his Emperor as the
personification of generous patronage and cultural enlightenment.
Arcimboldo's
homage to his patron did not help Rudolf politically, however, for his
brother Matthias still succeeded in deposing him. His reason for doing so
was that Rudolf was no longer capable of reigning, owing to so many other
distractions.
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