Art That Makes You Smarter : Guiseppe Arcimboldo's Fruit Faces
I’ve recently seen Giuseppe Arcimboldo art projects for kids all over Pinterest and Facebook. And it’s great to see teachers use him as an inspiration. There are many ways to incorporate his art into the classroom. In this blog, I want to talk about how you can use Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s fruit face artwork in your classroom!
Exploring Arcimboldo’s Artwork
The job of a renaissance court portraitist was to produce artworks that looked like the people on the court. A court portrait was a flattering, yet accurate depiction of the person. It’s like how we add filters to social media images today.
They would display these paintings at the palace or give them to foreign dignitaries as gifts. They also showed them to potential suitors or future wives.
Arcimboldo didn’t conform to cultural norms! In 1590, he painted the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II as a heap of different vegetables. It was a fruit face painting! You’d think the emperor would be infuriated by this, but he actually liked the painting.
His Relationship with the Hapsburgs
Rudolph's father welcomed Arcimboldo in the 1560s as an artist, and he stayed in this position until 1587.
The Hapsburgs wanted imaginative artworks in addition to the regular portraits. This was more because of the family’s interest in knowledge. During that period, knowledge was how they cemented their claim to greatness and enlightenment. Being enlightened meant that they deserved the throne more than others.
To them, Arcimboldo was a scientist, a visionary. Not only was he a trained artist, but he could combine the things he knew into one painting. This was very surreal for that era.
Literary and Language Connections to Arcimboldo’s Artwork
To discuss the symbolism of any artwork, you need to understand it. Arcimboldo’s paintings are allegorical and filled with visual puns. You could use this description together with the paintings in an English lesson.
An allegory is a visual representation of a hidden meaning with a moral or political significance. A pun is a joke that exploits different meanings of a word.
In art, we also talk about symbolism. Summer – one of Arcimboldo’s paintings – has symbolism. He used the ear of corn to depict human ears and more fruits and vegetables to depict other parts of the portrait. We may not find this amusing now, but it would have been hilarious then.
Ultimately, these paintings symbolized the power of the ruling family.
Using His Fruit Face Painting in Science Lessons
There's a scientific relevance to Arcimboldo’s paintings. If you're discussing plants in an elementary classroom, you could use the fruit face painting as a focal point.
Students could identify the plants and animals in the painting. You could discuss the features of the plants in Arcimboldo’s paintings and the importance of science in that period. Summer was painted at the dawn of scientific disciplines like biology and zoology. It was a time when artists were also showing their scientific knowledge.
Knowledge is significant to the theme and the symbolism of these works. It signified the value placed by the Hapsburgs on collecting nature. Not only was Arcimboldo showcasing his knowledge, but he was also showcasing the knowledge, wealth, and power of the royal family.
In the 1618 – 1648 war, some of his paintings were stolen and sent to Sweden. They started to disappear because they were in private collections, and the masses had no access to them. So, Arcimboldo was quite an obscure artist until Salvador Dali, a surrealist, rediscovered his works in the 20th century.
In some circles, Arcimboldo is hailed as the grandfather of surrealism. The National Gallery of Art has the only known undisputed work of Arcimboldo’s in an American museum. If you’re in the U.S., you could plan a trip to Washington DC with your class.
Want to bring Arcimboldo’s art into your classroom? I have a Giuseppe Arcimboldo Art Bundle with several fun, ready-to-go activities: grid drawing, portrait puzzles, secret picture tiles, and a food faces art game. These can be used in any content areas. Pair it with a nutrition unit or a informational text about Arcimboldo! Or you can use it for a fun, no-prep art activity.
