Description
Summer is the head of a figure in profile that Giuseppe Arcimboldo assembled from the fruit and vegetables of the season: a peach is the cheek, a cucumber the nose, an ear of maize the ear, cherries and a pea pod the mouth, and a pear the chin, while the body wears a coat of woven straw. The original, dated 1563 and painted on a limewood panel, is held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna under inventory number GG 1589, and the museum gives its size as 67 x 50.8 cm. 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: | Summer |
| Other titles: | Der Sommer · Aestas · Poletje · Ljeto · L’estate · A nyár |
| Painter: | Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–1593) |
| Year: | 1563 (the date is woven into the straw on the painting) |
| Original size: | 67 x 50.8 cm, as the museum gives it |
| Original technique: | painted on a limewood panel |
| Style: | Mannerism |
| Location: | Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. GG 1589) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, fifteen sizes from 30 x 40 to 122 x 145 cm, custom size on request |
Summer – Giuseppe Arcimboldo
What does the painting show?
The head and shoulders of a figure in profile, facing the right edge, on a dark ground. Here the figure is not a person with a name but a season: summer, built from what the summer harvest brings. The museum places the work in the series of the seasons made in 1563 and notes that, composed of plants and parts of plants, Summer nowhere shows the surface of a natural face. It also notes that the signature and the date are cleverly woven into the straw. On the back of the panel the museum records the inscription 1563 AESTAS, the Latin word for summer.
What is the head made of?
The cheek is a large, ripe peach, and the nose a cucumber curving down. The ear is an ear of maize half out of its husk, and below it hang two bulbs of garlic. The mouth is formed by red cherries and an open pea pod showing its peas, and a pear makes the chin. The neck is a long white root. On top of the head sit plums, cherries, a blackberry and a raspberry, leaves and ears of wheat, and at the left a large green vegetable, an aubergine and a bunch of green grapes; stalks of oats rise at the far left. The shoulders are a coat of woven straw with a high collar edged with ears of wheat, and from the chest at the right rises an artichoke on its stalk. On the collar, woven into the straw, the painter’s signature can be read, and on the shoulder the date 1563.
Why does this painting matter?
Because it belongs to the series on which, in the museum’s words, the painter’s posthumous fame rests. The museum notes that Arcimboldo was imperial court painter in Vienna and Prague from 1562, prized above all as director and designer of court tournaments and weddings, and that in 1563 he painted the series of the seasons. Summer is one of the two seasons the museum holds, together with Winter. The Vienna record for Fire, a work from the later series of the four elements, pairs the two series: Summer corresponds to Fire, Winter to Water, Spring to Air and Autumn to Earth. How the painter built his heads is the subject of our article about Arcimboldo.
What does the painting mean?
Summer is the season of harvest, and the head is literally a harvest: fruit, vegetables and grain gathered into a face. The signature and the date woven into the straw coat make the painting sign itself, as if the harvest had been bound together by the painter. This reading of the head as a harvest bound by the painter is ours, not the museum’s; the museum describes what the painting is made of and where the signature is, and we keep to that.
From the imperial collection to the painting gallery
The museum gives the painting’s history, with a question mark on its first stage: it may have been painted for the Archduke Maximilian, later emperor. It was then in the Kunstkammer of the Emperor Rudolf II, in 1748 in the imperial treasury in Vienna, and from 1830 in the painting gallery, where the museum still holds it.
Which Summer is this?
The one we paint is the Vienna panel of 1563. There is a second Summer by Arcimboldo that is easily confused with it: the Louvre’s Summer, part of the Paris series of the four seasons. The Louvre records it as oil on canvas, 76 cm high and 64 cm wide, signed and dated 1573, and notes that the series was very probably commissioned in 1573 as a gift from the Emperor Maximilian II to the Elector Augustus of Saxony; the Louvre bought it in 1964, and today it is at the Louvre-Lens. The two paintings share a subject but are not the same work.
The Four Seasons
This painting belongs to a cycle. All four are available here:
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Summer
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Spring
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Autumn
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Winter
Hung as a matched group of four, the sizes 30 × 40, 40 × 50, 50 × 60, 64 × 76, 70 × 80 cm work — every one of the four is available in them.
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. Summer is demanding because of the straw: the woven coat, the braided collar and the ears of wheat have to be painted strand by strand, and the letters and the date must stay legible within the weave. Our painter first lays in the dark ground and the outline of the profile, then the large forms, the peach, the cucumber and the pear, with their colour and highlights, and only then the small things, the cherries, the peas and the grains. The straw comes last, because it needs a fine brush and patience. The original is painted on a wooden panel, while our version is made on canvas, as is usual for work of this kind. The brushstrokes stay visible close up, and no two copies are ever quite the same.
Which size for which wall?
For most living rooms 50 x 60 cm or 64 x 76 cm is right. The smaller sizes, 30 x 40 cm and 40 x 50 cm, belong in a kitchen, a hallway or above a desk, where the fruit and the woven letters can be seen close up. 70 x 80 cm and 80 x 100 cm suit a wall over a sofa, and 100 x 120 cm needs a free wall with room to step back. The eight largest sizes, between 115 and 122 cm wide and 140 to 145 cm high, differ from one another by at most 7 cm in width and 5 cm in height. Our 64 x 76 cm matches the Louvre’s version, which is 64 cm wide and 76 cm high. The Vienna panel we paint measures 67 x 50.8 cm, as the museum gives it; the record does not say which figure is the height.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original?
At the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inventory number GG 1589. The year, size, material and history on this page come from the museum’s public record.
Who is shown in the work?
No one in particular: summer in the figure of a head made of fruit and vegetables. The museum names no sitter.
Where is the signature?
Woven into the straw: the museum records the inscription GIVSEPPE ARCIMBOLDO. F. 1563 on the collar and shoulders; the name is on the collar, the date on the shoulder.
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 50 x 60 cm. For a wall seen close up a smaller size suits better; for a large free wall, 100 x 120 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 summer, the season of harvest, is shown as a head made of what the harvest brings, signed in the straw.
Is the original for sale and what is it worth?
It is not for sale: it belongs to the museum’s collection in Vienna. We give no value, because the record carries none.
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 summer fruit and vegetables, with a peach for a cheek, a cucumber for a nose, an ear of maize for an ear and a coat of woven straw.
- Original: painted on a limewood panel, 67 x 50.8 cm as the museum gives it, dated 1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. GG 1589).
- Ours: each oil painting reproduction is hand-painted on canvas, in 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 back of the panel reads 1563 AESTAS, and the museum pairs Summer with Fire, which it also holds.
