12 February 2008 – 1 June 2008

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

From September 15, 2007 until January 13, 2008 the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris hosts a monograph exhibition dedicated to Guiseppe Arcimboldo. The concept for the show, a collaboration between the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Musée du Luxembourg, was elaborated by Dr. Sylvia Ferino, the KHM’s curator for Italian Renaissance painting.

Though celebrated for his intriguing portraits composed of plants, fruits and animals as well as of inorganic objects such as books, Arcimboldo (1526-1593) remains something of a “mystery” despite his popularity.

The artist was born in Milan where he started his career by working on designs for windows for the city’s cathedral. He worked in his hometown, specialising mainly in religious paintings, before being called to Vienna in 1562 by Maximilian, the eldest son of the Emperor Ferdinand I. For the next twenty-five years he served as court painter to the Emperor Maximilian II and his son, the Emperor Rudolf II, both in Vienna and in Prague, before returning to Milan in 1587.

Besides executing portraits of members of the Imperial family, Arcimboldo was also in charge of organising and designing tournaments, weddings, coronations and other celebrations held at the Imperial court. The exhibition documents the weird and wonderful combination of nature, science and art that is manifested in his work.

In 1563 he painted a series of depictions of the Seasons that in their strangeness and uniqueness served as the basis for the artist’s fame when he was rediscovered by the Surrealists and Dadaists in the early 20th century. Two of the three extant paintings from this first series of the Seasons are included in the exhibition: “Summer” and “Winter”, both now belong to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Arcimboldo painted another version of the series in 1573. It is now held by the Louvre and will also be included in the exhibition.

Address

Kunsthistorisches Museum
Maria-Theresien-Platz
1010 Wien
phone +43 1 52 52 40
http://www.khm.at

Opening Hours

Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Thursday till 9 p.m., closed on Monday.

Description of the Museum

The eight different collections of the museum are partly in the Neue Burg and in Schloß Schönbrunn. They include objects from old Egypt, the antiquity, the Middle Ages and the modern age until about 1800. Special focusses are the art of the Renaissance and the Baroque.

several branches, among others Schatzkammer (treasure chamber), Theatermuseum, Neue Burg, Wagenburg

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