{"id":84179,"date":"2021-09-02T18:11:16","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T16:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/uncategorized\/the-earth\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T01:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:12:04","slug":"the-earth","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/giuseppe-arcimboldo\/the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Giuseppe Arcimboldo \u2013 Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earth is a head that Giuseppe Arcimboldo assembled from land animals: the heads of a stag, a horse, a leopard, a wild boar and many others crowd together into the mass of the head, a small monkey sits on its edge, the large grey head of an elephant sits in the middle, and the shoulders are mostly a lion\u2019s skin on one side and a ram\u2019s curly fleece on the other. We make it as a hand-painted reproduction in oil on canvas, in fourteen sizes or a size of your own, and you receive a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Title:<\/strong><\/td>\nEarth<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Painter:<\/strong><\/td>\nGiuseppe Arcimboldo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original technique:<\/strong><\/td>\nnot confirmed \u2013 without an institution\u2019s record we make no claim about the original\u2019s technique<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Our reproduction:<\/strong><\/td>\nhand-painted oil on canvas, fourteen sizes from 30 x 40 to 110 x 150 cm, custom size on request<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earth \u2013 Giuseppe Arcimboldo<\/h2>\n

What does the painting show?<\/h3>\n

A head and shoulders built from animals that live on land, against a black ground. Here the figure is not a person with a name but an element: earth, made from the creatures that walk on it. Most of the animals are shown only as heads, fitted so closely into one another that from a distance they read as a single figure with a broad, dark outline. Antlers and horns rise from the top and the left side and give the head a jagged edge. Below, the shoulders are formed mostly by two large animals, a lion and a ram. The painting names no sitter, and we do not give the figure a name.<\/p>\n

What is the head made of?<\/h3>\n

Near the top, a stag with branching antlers looks out from the centre, and beside it are the head of a horse and the face of a large cat. At the upper left a small monkey sits on the dark edge. On the left side, broad, flat antlers and long, curved, ridged horns stick out beyond the outline, and below them are a wild boar with a tusk and a brown, dog-like head. On the right, a spotted leopard, several horned antelope heads and a long, lithe brown animal fill the space, and near the lower right edge of the head a second spotted cat looks out. In the middle lies the large grey head of an elephant, with its ear and a curved tusk. Below it are the heads of an ox and of smaller animals. The lower part is taken up by a lion\u2019s pelt with the lion\u2019s head at the lower left, a small horned animal lying on it, a brown hide hanging in the middle with one hoof showing, and at the lower right a ram with thick, curly white fleece and a curled horn.<\/p>\n

Why is this painting remarkable?<\/h3>\n

Because it gathers so many different land animals into a single head: tame ones such as the horse, the ox and the ram sit beside wild ones such as the stag, the boar and the leopard, and beside exotic ones such as the elephant and the monkey. Every animal is painted with its own fur, horn or hide, and yet from a distance all of them close into one figure. The contrast between the busy upper part, mostly heads and horns, and the two calm masses of the lion and the ram at the bottom holds the composition together. How the painter built his heads is the subject of our article about Arcimboldo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What does the painting mean?<\/h3>\n

The simplest reading is the one the series gives it: earth is shown through the animals that live on it. A further reading sees in the lion\u2019s skin and the ram\u2019s fleece on the shoulders signs of strength and rank worn like a cloak. That second reading is ours, not a sourced statement; we offer it only as an interpretation.<\/p>\n

The motif among the painter\u2019s works<\/h3>\n

Earth belongs to the four elements. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna holds two paintings from that series and publishes their records: Fire<\/a> and Water<\/a>. The museum reads the elements together with Arcimboldo\u2019s series of the seasons and pairs them: Autumn corresponds to Earth, Spring to Air, Summer to Fire and Winter to Water. The painting on this page is not one of the two held in Vienna, and we could not verify where it is.<\/p>\n

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The Four Elements<\/strong><\/p>\n

This painting belongs to a cycle. All four are available here:<\/p>\n