Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus (1590) by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Art Print from the Original on Canvas

Original public domain image from Skokloster Castle, Sweden, digitally enhanced. Oil on panel.

Full title: Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus, the Roman God of the Seasons, Growth, Plants and Fruit. The portrait is meant as an imperial allegory, corresponding with Arcimboldo's series of the seasons, with the Emperor here seen as ruler of them all. The variety of flowers and fruits from all season signify that a golden era has returned under the Emperors rule.

After the death of Emperor Rudolf II in 1612 the painting stayed in Prague where it is recorded in the inventory of the imperial collections in 1621 and 1635. It was later taken as war booty by the Swedish army in 1648.

Little is known of the early life of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, there is no record of under whom he studied, nor does it seem to be any surviving easel painting dating from this time. What we do know is that Arcimboldo, like many Italian artists, carried out multiple tasks at various places, like designing stained glass windows, frescos and tapestries in Milan, Como and Monza. However, all of this changed when he went to the House of Habsburg in 1562, first in Vienna and later in Prague, where he served as court painter to three Emperors, Ferdinand I, Maximilian II and Rudolf II.

In this period, Giuseppe Arcimboldo devoted himself to different tasks like portraits, designing festivals, drawings for silk manufacturers and he made aquisitions for the imperial collections. Arcimboldo did not start to paint his signature heads and figures until he came to the Habsburg court, and it has therefore been argued that the motifs we see here derived from the ideas of life that flourished at court during this time. However, it seems more likely that they where a combination of those ideas and the cultural climate of his native Lombardy.

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