Perhaps, at this point, you are asking yourself, "How on earth did Giuseppe Arcimboldo's paintings, commissioned as they were for the Hapsburgs, end up in Sweden?" Well, here's the scoop: years after Arcimboldo's death, when the Swedish army raided Prague in 1648 (during the Thirty Years' War), many of his works were stolen from Emperor Rudolf II's collections by orders of Queen Christina of Sweden. Christina was an Arcimboldo fan, and one with an army at her art-collecting disposal.
(This is the part where I'd love to tell you that might doesn't continue to make right in the 21st century, but we all know that's a false statement. Still, you'd want to cut Christina a considerable amount of slack. She genuinely liked the art, and the looting took place 360 years ago.)
About the show:
The Milanese and the Hapsburgs couldn't get enough of him during his 16th century lifetime but, after his death, Giuseppe Arcimboldo's works languished unnoticed in some moldering closet of art history for over 300 years. Until, that is, the Surrealists came along, drew inspiration from his anthropomorphic paintings and touted the artist's name once again. Now, nearly another 100 years on, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) illustrates that his best-known works remain as fun, fresh and innovative as anything that's been done since, and were grounded in solid draftsmanship and compositional skills. The show includes 40 paintings, about 30 objets d'art (including weapons and armor), graphic works and one tapestry, all on loan from private and public collections worldwide.
Scheduled Venues
Musée du Luxembourg, Paris: September 15, 2007-January 13, 2008
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: February 11-June 1, 2008