Description
Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Flora
| Year of creation: | ok 1591 |
| Original size: | 73 x 56 cm |
| Painting style: | Mannerism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | Private collection, Paris |
The whole body of the figure in this oil on canvas seems to be covered with flowers. The painter depicted the forehead, chin and cheeks of the portrait woman individually with a large flower. A yellow flower also rises from her cleavage, while Arcimboldo seems to have added a wreath of white flowers to the collar of the portrait’s dress to give the painting a special kind of glamour.
The whole figure appears covered in flowers: the brow, the chin and each cheek are single large blooms, while smaller flowers fill the surfaces between and the clothing itself. Up close it is a bouquet; from a distance, a calm female bust. The picture is privately held, so we make no claim about its passage through collections.
Technique: an oil painting reproduction on canvas, painted by hand in oils, one copy at a time.
