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LESSON TWO:
THE ALLEGORY OF VERTUMNUS (EMPEROR RUDOLF II)

Overview of Lesson

Arcimboldo’s composite heads are not only amusing and inventive visual puns, but also complex allegory based on the Empire he served. This lesson offers students the opportunity to examine another level of interpretation by analyzing the painting Vertumnus within its historical and cultural context. Students will explore how this work of art acted as an allegory of the history and science of this time. Students will imagine themselves as this composite head and make personal analogies that they would present to the emperor.

Objectives

· The student will carefully look and describe the visual
characteristics and imagery of Vertumnus.
· The student will link biographical, historical and cultural
events and beliefs of the mid- to late-sixteenth century to
the elements depicted in Vertumnus.
· The student will demonstrate an understanding of visual
allegory, by writing his/her own personal analogies of the
allegory expressed in the painting Vertumnus.

Materials and Resources

· Transparency of Vertumnus.
· Lesson Handout: Excerpt from Don Gregorio Comanini's poem on the painting Vertumnus
· Lesson Handout: Honor to the Emperor
· Map, 16th Centure Europe (optional)
· World history textbooks (optional)

Historical, Biographical, and Cultural
Information

Arcimboldo’s composite heads are closely connected with the intellectual life of the Hapsburg courts in which he served. A peculiar mixture of irrational and scientific thought prevailed at Rudolf’s court and was somehow reflected in Arcimboldo’s pictures. Arcimboldo served three Hapsburg emperors of the Holy Roman Empire: Ferdinand I (from 1558-1564), Maximilian II (from 1564-1576), and Rudolf II (from 1576-1612). The eleven years the artist spent with Rudolf II were probably the peak of his career.

  Arcimboldo’s inventive paintings were certainly a subject of great discussion at the Hapsburg courts. These paintings addressed the political image of these Austrian rulers of the Hapsburg Empire during a tumultuous time period. This was a serious subject. Explicit political messages were embedded in these works of art. Arcimboldo created an allegorical system that made a parallel between the bases of the natural universe and the political and spiritual leadership that the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire was meant to exercise on earth.

The Hapsburgs ruled over a great part of the world (the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire) and aspired to rule over all of it. Arcimboldo depicts Rudolf as omnipotent and ever-present, like the seasons, ruler of the microcosm and the macrocosm. This idea of the glorious majesty of the Emperor was based on a Renaissance concept. The Emperor rules over the state or world at large (macrocosm), and therefore, also, over man himself (microcosm). Thus, the harmony of the fruits and vegetables through all seasons that make up the composite head symbolizes the harmony that exists under the benevolent rule of the Hapsburgs.

Rudolf II was a clever and cultured man, greatly interested in chemistry, alchemy, astronomy and astrology; and was himself something of a scholar and an artist. He was the greatest collector of his age, his agents ransacking Europe to fill his museums with rare works of art. However, Rudolf II is described as an eccentric. Weak, depressive and introverted, he preferred to avoid problems. He was not a warlike character, but always tried to find a compromise between the

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