If you visit an art gallery and look at paintings from hundreds of years ago, you may view many portraits of people you have never heard of. Of course, they were famous and rich when their portrait was painted, but today their names are no longer remembered.

Before you turn around and head for the art gallery exit, we would like to bring your attention to an Italian artist called Giuseppe Arcimboldo. We think you may really like his work. He lived nearly 500 years ago, and his paintings are very different. Yes, he did paint portraits of people. However, instead of making them look as lifelike as possible, he painted portraits of people using objects such as fruit, vegetables, flowers and fish.

If you look at Arcimboldo’s portraits from a distance, they really do look like a person’s face. Close up, you can see what he has done. It’s really amazing. He began his career like many other artists of that time, painting the windows of churches in Italy – just as his father had done. At the age of 36 his big break came and he began working for the royal family, first in Vienna and then Prague. There, he mixed with the rich and famous. Large numbers of them wanted their portraits painted by Arcimboldo.

He wanted his portraits to be funny, but he always chose objects within the portrait that represented the person he was painting. For example, for his portrait of Wolfgang Lazius, an historian known for his love of books, Arcimboldo used books to create the face.

When he was older, he began painting pictures of what looked like still life, such as bowls of fruit. If you turned the paintings upside down, the still life would become a portrait of someone.

Arcimboldo died on 11th July, 1593. Shortly afterwards, most of his paintings disappeared. Many were taken to Sweden, where they were displayed in private homes and soon forgotten about. During the 20^th century, artists including Salvador Dali began to say that Arcimboldo’s portraits had been a very big influence. Slowly, his paintings began to reappear, and now they can be seen in the best art galleries around the world.

Portrait paintings can be a little boring to look at, especially if you do not know who the people are in the picture and the place they hold in history. Arcimboldo’s work is a great way to help you begin discovering painting. Even if you do not know who the person in the painting is, you will at least enjoy the genius of the artist who painted it.

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VIDEO: Giuseppe Arcimboldo in 3D

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