The archive / Renaissance / Vertumnus
⤢ Click to zoom
Vertumnus
Giuseppe Arcimboldo · 1526–1593
Trusted by buyers on Etsy
3 variations + a matched story print, every standard frame ratio. 300 DPI · sRGB · personal-use license.
Museum-quality giclée on Hahnemühle German Etching — heavyweight 310gsm, acid-free, velvety matte. Made to order & shipped.
Sizes in the download
Ready-to-print files at every size below — each drops straight into a standard frame at 300 DPI, nothing cropped:
Each of these also prints big-wall at 150 DPI — up to about 36″ on the short side (so the 24×36″ becomes 36×54″), for a step-back view. Or print the borderless master, the full-resolution scan, sharp to about A1.
The work
An emperor built entirely from fruit.
Arcimboldo painted Vertumnus in 1591 as a gift for his former employer, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. He cast the emperor as Vertumnus, the Roman god of the seasons and of change, rendering him entirely out of fruits, vegetables and flowers.
How it reached Sweden
Listed as 'a face of fruit,' it left as plunder.
The painting came to Sweden as war booty. In 1648, Swedish troops under Hans Christoph von Königsmarck captured Prague Castle and its art collections, and the work appears as number 351 on Königsmarck's transport list, described as 'a face of fruit.'
Why it ended up here
Out of fashion, it slipped from royal hands.
By the mid-17th century Arcimboldo's bizarre style was considered old-fashioned, so the painting passed not to Queen Kristina but to one of her subjects, ending up in the estate of Per Brahe the Younger at Bogesund Castle before Magnus Brahe transferred it to Skokloster between 1828 and 1845. It is not even known whether Rudolf II liked the gift, or where he kept it during his lifetime.
There is a certain ugliness more beautiful than any beauty.— Gregorio Comanini, in the poem accompanying the painting, c. 1591
The file & the facts
- Title
- Vertumnus
- Artist
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo
- Year
- 1591
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Original
- 70.5 × 57.5 cm
- Collection
- Skokloster Castle, Sweden
- Rights
- Open access · personal use
- File
- 300 DPI · sRGB · JPEG
