Description
Giuseppe Arcimboldo – The Earth
| Year of creation: | ok 1570 | |
| Original size: | 70 x 49 cm | |
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| Located: | private collection, Wien |
The Four Elements
This painting belongs to a cycle. All four are available here:
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Earth
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Air
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Fire
- 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
Land animals fold into one another here: antlers for the hair, an elephant’s back for the brow, a ram and a ewe at the shoulder, a lion’s head for the chest, and among them a monkey, a boar and a doe. Each is painted whole and recognisable, which is exactly why the profile only holds together from a distance. The original is privately held in Vienna, so we claim nothing about its path through collections.
Technique: a hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas, made to order in the size you choose.
