Giuseppe arcimboldo the librarian
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K. C. Elhard suggests that it may be specifically a parody of "materialistic book collectors more interested in acquiring books than in reading them."
Elhard notes that The Librarian has become "a fixture in the visual history of the library profession". The scenes were in the formal and perfection-obsessed style of the Renaissance.
Arcimboldo's influence can also be seen in the work of Shigeo Fukuda, István Orosz, Octavio Ocampo, and Sandro del Prete, as well as the films of Jan Švankmajer" (Wikipedia article on Giuseppe Arcimboldo, accessed 01-02-2011).
Timeline Themes
The Librarian
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The Librarian is one of the early works executed immediately after Arcimboldo arrived at the Habsburg court in Prague.
In The Librarian, Arcimboldo used objects that signified the book culture at that time. It's definitely an icon in the pictorial history of the library as a profession. Whereas in other paintings, he shaped singular pieces of fruit or meat into the eyes, nose, or curve of the chin, in this painting, the pile of books only resembles a person, and upon closer inspection, the features become less clear.
In this painting, Arcimboldo’s subject is obvious: a lover of books made up out of books. Many great artists were influenced by Arcimboldo and his creative work. This is an example of Arcimboldo’s great talent of disguising his objects into the form of a person, or as in this case, disguising his person into the form of his objects.
Even after his return to Milan in 1587, Arcimboldo maintained his connections to the Hapsburgs as he continued to paint for them. He created The Librarian in oils and canvas, bringing out a clever construction of a man from books. A scientific study published in 2011 concluded that The Librarian was a later copy of Arcimbolodo's original painting, whose whereabouts are unknown.
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Skokloster Castle dates the painting to 1562, though the painting is more often dated circa 1566.
Arcimboldo created a number of portraits of people by painting an assemblage of objects such as fruits and vegetables, flowers, or in this case, books; the objects typically had some connection to the person's life or depiction.
The arrangement of the books is particularly impressive as you can notice a man who seems to be holding books just by a glance. Some chose his path in imaginative portraits from objects. The painting was brought to Sweden following the looting of Prague Castle by the Swedish army during the 1648 Battle of Prague and was owned by General Hans Christoff von Königsmarck.
There are three other extant versions of the painting whose attributions are uncertain.
In 1957, art historian Sven Alfons was the first to conclude that this was specifically a portrait of Lazius.
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Famous works
Giuseppe Arcimboldo Paints a Surrealist Portrait of the Librarian
In 1566 Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, court portraitist to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I at the Habsburg court in Vienna, and later, to Maximilian II and his son Rudolf II at the court in Prague, painted The Librarian as part of a series of portraits in which a collection of objects—in this instance books—form a recognizable likeness in semi-human form of the portrait subject.
And this leads to his argument that the portrait focuses more on selfish qualities rather than the subject matter, which points to collectors and not intellectuals or librarians.
Style and Technique
Arcimboldo is known for his creativity in associating objects like flowers to someone’s life. Animal tails, which became the beard of the portrait, were used as dusters.
This painting, preserved at Skokloster Castle, Sweden, is, like others from Arcimbaldo's series, often interpretted as an expression of the Renaissance fascination with riddles, puzzles, and the bizarre.
"The bizarre works of Arcimboldo, especially his multiple images, were rediscovered in the early 20th century by Surrealist artists like Salvador Dalí.
This is an example of the painter’s ability to be less literal.
The Librarian
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
The Librarian
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Not only did Arcimboldo use fruits, vegetables, plants, and animals as objects for the compilations in his paintings, he also used inanimate objects such as books and papers.
The portrait is believed to be a painting of Wolfgang Lazius, a historian and humanist who served Holy Roman.
Giuseppe made several portraits of people by portraying an assemblage of objects like flowers, fruits and vegetables, or books in The Librarian case.