Description
Air is a head that Giuseppe Arcimboldo assembled entirely from birds: dozens of small bird heads, many with their beaks pointing outwards, make up the mass of the head, a white goose, an owl, a cockerel and a red parrot can be picked out among them, and the chest and shoulders are mostly the spread fan of a peacock. We make it as a hand-painted reproduction in oil on canvas, in five sizes or a size of your own, and you receive a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | Air |
| Painter: | Giuseppe Arcimboldo |
| Original technique: | not confirmed – without an institution’s record we make no claim about the original’s technique |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, five sizes from 30 x 40 to 70 x 90 cm, custom size on request |
We could not verify a published record of this painting at any institution, so we have no measured dimensions and no inventory number to rely on. That is why you will not find a year of execution, a collection name or an accession number on this page. We say what can be checked against an institution or on the painting itself, and nothing else.
Air – Giuseppe Arcimboldo
What does the painting show?
A head and shoulders built from birds, set against a plain dark brown ground. Here the figure is not a person with a name but an element: air, made from the creatures that live in it. The head is crowded to its edges: most birds are shown only as a head and a beak, packed so closely against one another that together they read as a thick mass of hair or plumage. Below the head, the shoulders and chest are formed mainly by one large bird, a peacock with its tail spread wide. The painting names no sitter, and we do not give the figure a name.
What is the head made of?
Dozens of bird heads, most of them brown and black, many with long, sharp beaks pointing outwards at the left, where they make a jagged outline against the dark ground. Among them a few birds stand out by their colour or size. Near the top centre is the round, flat face of an owl. In the middle sits a white goose, and just below and to the right a cockerel with a dark tail curving up. A large, pale yellow bird fills much of the right side, and at the right edge are a pinkish bird’s head and, below it, the head of a turkey with a red wattle. At the lower left a red parrot’s head looks out, and at the lower right is a dark bird’s head with a hooked beak, while long reddish tail feathers fall towards the lower right. The peacock’s tail below is painted feather by feather, each with its golden eye, and the peacock’s green neck and small head rise at the bottom in the middle. Almost every bird has its own clearly painted eye, so that close up the head seems to look back at the viewer from dozens of eyes at once.
Why is this painting remarkable?
Because it is made from a single kind of creature: birds, from the smallest head to the peacock that carries the whole figure. That makes the painting almost an inventory: domestic birds such as the goose, the cockerel and the turkey sit beside wild ones such as the owl, and exotic ones such as the parrot and the peacock. From a distance the crowd closes into a single calm head; close up it becomes a gathering of individual birds. How the painter built his heads is the subject of our article about Arcimboldo.
What does the painting mean?
The simplest reading is the one the series gives it: air is shown through the animals that fill it, as water is shown through the animals that live in it. A further reading sees in the peacock, a bird long associated with splendour, a sign of rank placed at the chest like an order. That second reading is ours, not a sourced statement; we offer it only as an interpretation.
The motif among the painter’s works
Air belongs to the four elements. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna holds two paintings from that series and publishes their records: Fire and Water. The museum reads the elements together with Arcimboldo’s earlier series of the seasons and pairs them: Spring corresponds to Air, Summer to Fire, Winter to Water and Autumn to Earth. The painting on this page is not one of the two held in Vienna, and we could not verify where it is.
The Four Elements
This painting belongs to a cycle. All four are available here:
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Air
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Fire
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Earth
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Water
As a matched group of four there is a single shared size today: 30 × 40 cm. Larger sizes exist for individual paintings, but not across all four at once.
More on both cycles as a wall group: Arcimboldo’s Four Seasons and Four Elements as a wall group
How is our hand-painted version made?
Every copy is hand-painted in oil on canvas; none is printed. Air is demanding because of its sheer number of small forms: every bird’s head needs its own eye and beak, and yet the heads must merge into one mass when seen from a distance. Our painter first lays in the dark ground and the overall outline of the head, then the large birds, the goose, the cockerel and the yellow bird, and only then the many small heads one by one. The peacock’s tail is built feather by feather, and the golden eyes of the feathers come last. The brushstrokes stay visible close up, and no two copies are ever quite the same.
Which size for which wall?
Air is offered in five sizes. For most rooms 60 x 80 cm is right. The smaller sizes, 30 x 40 cm and 40 x 55 cm, belong in a hallway or above a desk, where the individual birds can be made out close up. 56 x 75 cm and 60 x 80 cm suit a wall over a chest of drawers or a bed, and 70 x 90 cm a wall over a sofa, with room to step back. For the four elements hung as a group, 30 x 40 cm is the size all four share. We give no size for the original, because we could not verify one.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
If none of the five sizes fits, we paint in the size you ask for; send width and height through the paintings made to order page and we will prepare a quote. The painting is delivered stretched on a wooden stretcher bar and ready to hang, or rolled in a tube. You choose the frame on this page: the 3D frame selector offers 62 profiles, and the painting can also be ordered without a frame.
Delivery and guarantee
We paint to order, so it takes a few weeks, depending on size and on how busy the workshop is. We ship to sixteen countries in the European Union. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished painting; if something is not as you expected, we correct it before it goes out, at no extra cost. Every oil painting reproduction we make to order is a single copy, which is why we take time over that check.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original?
We could not verify any institution’s record of this painting, so we name no location. We state only what we can check.
Who is shown in the work?
No one by name: air in the figure of a head made of birds. The painting gives no name for a sitter.
Which birds can be recognised?
Among many small bird heads: an owl, a white goose, a cockerel, a turkey with a red wattle, a red parrot and, at the bottom, a peacock with its tail spread.
Is this a print?
No. Every copy is painted by hand, in oil on canvas.
Which size should I choose?
If you cannot decide, take 60 x 80 cm. For a wall seen close up a smaller size suits better; for a larger free wall, 70 x 90 cm.
Can I have a size that is not listed?
You can. We paint in any size; send width and height through the custom order page.
How is it delivered?
Stretched on the bar and ready to hang, or rolled in a tube.
What is the work about, in one sentence?
That air, the element nobody can see, is shown through the birds that live in it, gathered into a single head.
Is the original for sale and what is it worth?
We do not know: we could not verify a record of who holds the original, so we give no value.
How high should I hang it?
Centre it about 145 cm from the floor; over furniture, with the lower edge 20 to 30 cm above it.
Is it suitable as a gift?
It is, and if you cannot pick a size you can give a gift voucher instead, leaving the choice to whoever receives it.
- Subject: a head made of birds, with an owl, a goose, a cockerel and a parrot among dozens of small heads, and a peacock’s spread tail for a chest.
- Original: we could not verify an institution’s record of the original, so we give no year, size or location.
- Ours: a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas, five sizes or your own, with a photograph for approval before dispatch. You choose the frame on this page, or order the painting without one.
- Worth knowing: the museum in Vienna, which holds Fire and Water from the same series, pairs Air with Spring.
