The document describes Giuseppe Arcimboldo's 1590 painting "Four Seasons in One Head". The painting depicts the four seasons as a composite head made of objects representing each season. Spring is represented by a small flower and straw cloak. Summer is represented by cherries, damsons, and a straw cloak. Autumn is represented by grapes and apples hidden in ivy. Winter, which produces nothing, is depicted as a knotty tree trunk with moss beard and twig horns. The painting was commissioned by Don Gregorio Comanini and included his description of its symbolism.

2. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Four Seasons in One Head
c. 1590
Oil on canvas, 44.7 cm x 60.4 cm
National Gallery of Art , Washington

3. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Four Seasons in One Head (detail)
c. 1590
Oil on canvas, 44.7 cm x 60.4 cm
National Gallery of Art , Washington

4. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Four Seasons in One Head (detail)
c. 1590
Oil on canvas, 44.7 cm x 60.4 cm
National Gallery of Art , Washington

5. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Four Seasons in One Head (detail)
c. 1590
Oil on canvas, 44.7 cm x 60.4 cm
National Gallery of Art , Washington

6. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Four Seasons in One Head (detail)
c. 1590
Oil on canvas, 44.7 cm x 60.4 cm
National Gallery of Art , Washington

7. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Four Seasons in One Head (detail)
c. 1590
Oil on canvas, 44.7 cm x 60.4 cm
National Gallery of Art , Washington

8. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Featured Paintings in Detail
(1)
(Allegories of the Seasons and the Elements)

10. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Summer
1563
Oil on panel, 67 x 51 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

11. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Summer (detail)
1563
Oil on panel, 67 x 51 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

12. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Summer (detail)
1563
Oil on panel, 67 x 51 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

13. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Summer (detail)
1563
Oil on panel, 67 x 51 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

14. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Summer (detail)
1563
Oil on panel, 67 x 51 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

15. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Summer (detail)
1563
Oil on panel, 67 x 51 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

16. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Summer (detail)
1563
Oil on panel, 67 x 51 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

18. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Spring
1563
Oil on oak wood, 66 x 50 cm
Museo de la Real Academia de San
Fernando, Madrid

19. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Spring (detail)
1563
Oil on oak wood, 66 x 50 cm
Museo de la Real Academia de San
Fernando, Madrid

20. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Spring (detail)
1563
Oil on oak wood, 66 x 50 cm
Museo de la Real Academia de San
Fernando, Madrid

21. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Spring (detail)
1563
Oil on oak wood, 66 x 50 cm
Museo de la Real Academia de San
Fernando, Madrid

22. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Spring (detail)
1563
Oil on oak wood, 66 x 50 cm
Museo de la Real Academia de San
Fernando, Madrid

23. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Spring (detail)
1563
Oil on oak wood, 66 x 50 cm
Museo de la Real Academia de San
Fernando, Madrid

24. cast ARCIMBOLDO,
Giuseppe, Featured Paintings in Detail (1)
(Allegories of the Seasons and the Elements)
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25. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Four Seasons in One Head
This work was painted for Don Gregorio Comanini, a Mantuan man of letters. He gives the following description of the painting in his dialogue Il
Figino, published in 1591:
"Please have Comanino show you that piece of art that he made of the four seasons. The you will see a very special painting!
A very knotty trunk represents the breast and head, some holes for the mouth and eyes, and a protruding branch for the nose; the beard is made
of strands of moss and some twigs on the forehead form horns. This tree-stump, without its own leaves or fruit, represents winter, which
produces nothing itself, but depends on the production of the other seasons.
A small flower on his breast and over his shoulders symbolizes spring, as well as a bundle of ears bound to some twigs, and a cloak of plaited
straw covering his shoulders, and two cherries hanging from a branch forming his ear, and two damsons on the back of his head represent
summer.And two grapes hanging from a twig, one white and one red, and some apples, hidden among evergreen ivy sprouting forth from his
head, symbolize autumn.
Among the branches in the head, one in the middle is loosing a bit of its bark, and pieces of it are bent and falling off; on the white area of this
branch is written 'ARCIMBOLDUS P.'.
This is how the painting is, in any case, and if you see it, it will please you wonderfully."

26. ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian Renaissance painter known for his intricate paintings, which
combined inanimate or found objects into a portrait that would resemble the portrait subject.
In 1562, he became the court painter to Ferdinand I of Vienna, and later for Maximilien II and his son
Rudolph II of Prague. At this time, he was also employed as the court decorator and costume designer.
Most of Arcimboldo’s remaining works are of collected objects, which have been assembled to
resemble people. He used fruits, flowers, vegetables, fish, and books, and other things, (among them
slabs of meat), and arranged them in such a way as to not only resemble a person, but the person’s
resemblance as well.
Due to his strange rendition of the human figure, there is a debate among art critics as to whether or not
Arcimboldo’s paintings are the work of a deranged mind. A more likely explanation, however, is that the
paintings are a product of the Renaissance era in which he lived, which was fascinated with riddles,
puzzles, and the bizarre. If this was the case, then Arcimboldo’s strange depictions were only just
catering to the tastes of the time.
Many of his works were taken from Prague during the Thirty Years War by the invading Swedish army,
and Arcimboldo was almost completely lost to history. His works were only just rediscovered at the
beginning of the 20th century by the Surrealist painters, including Salvador Dali, who were heavily
influenced by the artist’s unique style.