It’s day 4 of Culture Tourist Art Blogmas today. And I’m sharing the work of one of my favourite artists and the most interesting Italian Mannerist painters, Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Winter.

Art Blogmas 2022

Giuseppe Arcimboldo is the 16th-century Italian painter from Milan. Although he was a respected court painter, today he’s the best known for the series of grotesque portraits made of different objects such as books, flowers, fruit, vegetables etc.

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Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Winter

He made a series of four paintings, called the Four Seasons, and the artwork we’re hosting in Culture Tourist’s Art Blogmas today, Winter, is one of them.

From the four paintings, only Winter and Summer survived, and are displayed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Winter is depicted as a profile of an old man’s head. He made a composition with the bare tree and brown branches. The tree bark is representing the wrinkled skin. On his coat, the man is having decoration made of lemons – winter fruits.

With the way he used parts of trees and elements from nature, Giuseppe Arcimboldo is the forerunner of surrealism.

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If you don’t want to miss other paintings I’m going to share with you in this year’s Art Blogmas, be sure to check in here tomorrow morning. Or, follow along on the Culture Tourist Facebook page and Instagram profile.