Arcimboldo

The exhibition is curated by Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, one of the world’s leading Arcimboldo scholars and former Director of the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is the first time a monographic exhibition on the artist is presented in Rome, featuring over twenty masterpieces, drawings and paintings by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milan, 1526-1593). The exhibition will also feature portraits, the exceptional tapestry from the Como Cathedral and the stained-glass windows of the Duomo in Milano, as well as his watercolour sketches of costumes and decorations for court festivities. A selection of  rare and precious objects from Vienna’s imperial Wunderkammer and from the workshops of Milan will be shown alongside drawings of plants, fruit and animals.  At the time these were studied extensively in order to grow greenhouses, menageries and gardens, and to foster scientific research. Arcimboldo, who is well known for his “composed heads” crafted from fruits and flowers, was also a poet and philosopher.