Template:POTD/2023-09-29
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526–1593) was an Italian Renaissance painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books. Born in Milan, he initially trained as a painter under his father Biagio Arcimboldo before serving as a court painter for the Habsburg monarchs in Vienna and Prague. Arcimboldo's oeuvre was largely forgotten after his death, and many of his works were lost. They were not mentioned in the literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, appearing again only in 1885 when the art critic K. Kasati published the monograph Giuseppe Arcimboldi, Milan Artist, describing his role as a portraitist. This pen-and-watercolour self-portrait by Arcimboldo was created in the 1570s and is now in the National Gallery Prague.Drawing credit: Giuseppe Arcimboldo