Description
Flora is a bust-length figure whose skin, hair and collar Giuseppe Arcimboldo built from flowers and whose dress he built from leaves; her name is written on the painting itself, in the inscription LA FLORA DELL’ARCIMBOLDO. Apart from the eyes and the nose, the face is painted in pale, overlapping blossoms, cheek and chin are roses, and the wreath in her hair is full of lilies, roses, an iris and daisies. We make it as a hand-painted reproduction in oil on canvas, in fifteen sizes or a size of your own, and you receive a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | Flora |
| Painter: | Giuseppe Arcimboldo |
| Original technique: | not confirmed – without an institution’s record we claim nothing about the original |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, fifteen sizes from 30 x 40 to 131 x 170 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.
Flora – Giuseppe Arcimboldo
What does the painting show?
A bust-length figure turned almost fully towards the viewer, the eyes glancing sideways towards the left edge of the painting. On the dark ground, high up, two inscriptions are written in small, faint capitals: LA FLORA on the left, DELL’ARCIMBOLDO on the right, meaning Arcimboldo’s Flora. Flora is the name of the Roman goddess of flowers and of spring; the painting shows her as a female figure made almost entirely of flowers and leaves. The painting does not say who, if anyone, sat for it.
What is the face made of?
In Vertumnus, fruit and flowers sit side by side and only come together into a face from a distance. Flora works differently: the skin of the face and neck is painted in small, pale, translucent blossoms that overlap like a thin veil, so that from a distance it truly reads as skin, and only close up does almost every part turn out to be a flower. The cheek is a pink rose, the chin a second rose, the lips are made of petals, the eyebrows two rows of tiny green buds. The nose is not made of flowers: it is smooth and long, warmer in tone than the skin around it, like a bud. The ear is a large dark-pink bloom, and beneath it a blue columbine hangs like an earring. In the hair sits a dense wreath: an orange lily at the top, a large white lily on the left, a dark iris and a yellow lily on the right, and between them red roses, yellow and orange flowers, white lily of the valley and smaller blooms of every colour. A thick collar of white flowers frames the neck and neckline, red, blue and yellow flowers line the edge of the neckline, and the shoulders and dress are painted in green leaves of many shapes. The black ground has no depth, so the whole figure steps forward.
Why is this painting remarkable?
It turns Arcimboldo’s game around. In Spring the face is in profile and the flowers stay more visibly separate, so the eye keeps moving between roses and face. In Flora the flowers try to be skin: the pale, overlapping blossoms almost vanish into the even tone of the face and show themselves only when the eye rests on the forehead or the neck. The painter is not showing how a person is assembled from things, but how thin the line is at which a person becomes flowers. From a distance it is a calm woman’s face; only close up does it turn strange. How the painter built his heads is the subject of our article about Arcimboldo.
What does the painting mean?
The inscription gives it a name, and with the name a reading. The goddess of flowers is here literally made of flowers: she is not decorated with flowers but built from them, from brow to collar, while her shoulders are leaves. One reading sees in this a tribute to beauty, which is itself a flower and therefore as fleeting as one. Another sees a joke: a woman’s face that looks entirely serious from across the room and turns out to be a bouquet close up. Because we could not verify any institution’s record of this work, we keep to what the canvas shows and the inscription says.
The motif among the painter’s works
Heads assembled from flowers, fruit and objects are Arcimboldo’s constant. The closest relative is Spring, a young man’s head in profile made of roses, peonies and pansies, held by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. The imperial portrait Rudolf II (Holy Roman Emperor) as Vertumnus is likewise made of fruit, vegetables and flowers, and is held by Skokloster Castle in Sweden. Summer is built from summer produce, and Portrait with Vegetables from vegetables in a bowl. All of our Arcimboldo paintings are gathered on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo page.
How is our hand-painted version made?
Every copy is hand-painted in oil on canvas; none is printed. Flora is among the more demanding subjects, because from a distance the face must read as even skin while close up every translucent flower has to stay recognisable. Our painter therefore builds the face in thin layers: first an even pinkish white, then over it the outlines of the flowers in only slightly lighter and darker tones, and last the roses on cheek and chin, which must be stronger than the rest of the skin. The wreath and the white collar, by contrast, are painted in clear, full colour, because they have to ring out beside the pale face. The dress of leaves needs several different greens so that the leaves do not melt into one flat area. The brushstrokes stay visible close up, and because we paint each one separately, no two copies are ever quite the same.
Which size for which wall?
For most living rooms 70 x 90 cm is right. The smaller sizes, 30 x 40 cm and 40 x 50 cm, belong in a hallway or above a desk, where the painting is seen close up and you can tell that the skin is made of flowers. The 50 x 65 cm and 56 x 73 cm sizes suit a wall over a chest of drawers or a bed, and 70 x 90 cm and 80 x 100 cm a wall over a sofa, where the figure works as a portrait. The large sizes, 100 x 130 cm and 120 x 160 cm, need a free wall with room to step back. The seven largest sizes, from 126 x 170 cm to 131 x 170 cm, differ from one another by at most 5 cm in width and 8 cm in height: among them you pick the one that best fits the exact space on your wall. We give no size for the original, because we could not verify one.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
If none of the fifteen 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?
Flora, as the inscription on the painting itself says; in Roman myth, Flora is the goddess of flowers. The painting gives no name for a sitter.
Is Flora the same painting as Spring?
No. Spring is a young man’s head made of flowers, in profile; Flora is a female figure facing the viewer, with skin made of translucent blossoms. We offer them as two separate paintings.
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 70 x 90 cm. For a wall seen close up a smaller size suits better; for a large free wall, 100 x 130 cm or larger.
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 the goddess of flowers is made of flowers even in her skin, and that the line between a face and a bouquet is thinner than it looks.
Is the original for sale and what is it worth?
We do not know: we could not verify a record of who holds the painting, so we give no value.
How high should I hang it?
Centre it about 145 cm from the floor, the eye height of an average adult; 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: Flora, goddess of flowers, with skin made of translucent blossoms, roses on cheek and chin, and a wreath of lilies, roses and an iris in her hair.
- Original: the painting carries the inscription LA FLORA DELL’ARCIMBOLDO; we could not verify an institution’s record of the original.
- Ours: a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas, fifteen 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 flowers here imitate skin and, from a distance, melt into the even tone of the face, more than in Spring.
