This Painting Is Tastier Than It Looks 

I found his work very scary as a child. Now I love them…first, his ability to paint food items, foliage and other objects from nature is extraordinary. Second, the way he creates people from these objects is wondrous…like someone threw Bosch, Alice in Wonderland and Fantastic Beasts into a big old bowl and tossed them together into an magical anthropomorphic salad. Ok that was strained, but trying to describe his work is not that easy! Finally, the contrast between his work and everything else from the time is so unexpected and delightful.

He was way ahead of his time, his work looks so modern

My A level piece was inspired by Acrimboldo. I remember seeing Autumn in an Italian cook book when I was young, the fascination I had with the art made me fall in love with cooking too

This got me thinking how bizarre this must have seemed when there was no bombardment of images like today - no movies, no memes, no animations, fewer books, etc. When I imagine it this way, his quote makes more sense to me. Like what a "feast" for the eyes and the brain!

His painting takes an incredible amount of skill and knowledge of textures, shape and anatomy. To be able to paint all those different plants, animals, food and object in such detail is something to admire.

When looking at these paintings I always had this "uncanny valley" feeling that you get when looking at certain robots or 3D animated characters. I think it's because the artist was able to effectively use certain fruits, vegetables, plants and animals (like the round pinkish colored apples for puffy full cheeks or the pear for a big nose or those little fruits right below the eyes to resemble these saggy skin parts older people get there) that almost resemble the real body parts in their shape and arranged those to make the face appear for humans. And that's exactly what evokes this uncanny feeling for me, because it looks kinda similar to a real human but is still different. I find it hard to explain but in 3D design it's similar, you have these 3D parts of the character that resemble human features but they are off by some amount to make it look weird because they are correctly arranged together and Form a complete image of a human being.

It isn't a random thing to see faces in cars, these days most cars are designed that way. Someone did a study on car sales and discovered the cars that had faces like animals sold better. So car designers began to deliberately make faces. Take a look at some of the most expensive cars, many look like snakes and other predators. Big macho pickup trucks look like Bulldogs and Rams.

I think these paintings are definitely crazy and weird. But they’re also wonderful masterpieces. I can’t believe how old they are.

I love these crazy paintings. They are actually amazing and full of beauty. All the different animals and produce, Looks so real. As a kid I would lay in bed and stare at the popcorn ceiling and see all kinds of faces and objects.

I love your videos. Archimboldo is a favorite. As a child of the 50s, the pharmacy my family used had posters in the archimboldo style but consisting of sugary candies, starchy vegetables, bread, doughnuts and unhealthy foods. I loved gazing and analyzing these ‘ugly’ portraits and making the connection between bad food and ugly faces. You are much more entertaining than the art history professors I had at the U.W.

All I can imagine is Maximillian scanning through the paintings, nodding to himself, chuckling here and there and then “haha! A MONKEY! BRILLIANT!” Those are fun paintings. And this is perhaps plebeian of me, but, this legitamtly reminds of the art design of the Dark Souls games and especially Elden Ring. On one level simple shock body horror but it peer into (with editing tools) faces of some of the game’s bosses, you’ll see this happen where can recognize human features etc in what is other wise a visual nightmare. K, plebeian nerd moment over lol

My art class in elementary had us make self portraits made of fruits and vegetables.

It appears that making recognizable paintings of human faces composed of fruits, vegetables, and other items became a popular way for painters to show off their artistic abilities.

I love those fruit portrait paintings. The lighting, the elegance. I love it.

they're genius imo

Remember having an art assignment when I was in school to use food to create a portrait. Found his work really fascinating and quirky at the time.

The detail when zoomed in.. 🤯 The skill 👏👏👏👏

I love The Four Seasons in One Head. It's so scary but beautiful.

I used to go to a restaurant which had paintings of figures that were also hiding another picture within it. One had women with bread that made a skull (I think) and another of a couple which made another picture inside that I cannot remember. I wish I could recall the artist's name, however they were really fascinating. I enjoyed staring at them immensely.

I've loved his works since I was small, not until now that I've learned his name! While I was growing up watching and reading the fantasy genre, Arcimboldo's art is the perfect pairing for my imagination of talking tree people and faeries!

The commentary and editing on this one are really next level. More of this style please. It's makes art a lot more fun.

Most comments come from people who are very art familiar, I am not, but I enjoy it very much. The Four Seasons is very much my kind of Art. Artists (a collective including Jesters) also pointed out weaknesses in society, most often focused on government or mass stupidity. I appreciate this and I am learning slowly, how to look at paintings with different eyes.

Your posts are always fascinating!! I’ve learned so much!👍👍👍

I’ve seen these many times, but until now did not know the story of the artist. Thank you very much.

Love this channel so much! ✨ I hope you keep making videos like this one 😭I like the way you explain things, very entertaining and informative. Great analysis, as always! 💗

your video made me appreciate these paintings and find them beautiful, i remember seeing prints of these portraits in classrooms and doctor offices growing up, and at the time I did think they were "ugly" but really looking at them they are so skillyfull constructed, and the elements that make up the portrait are beuaitful

Wow!This is actually beautiful.His style is unique and he's such a skilled artist.I agree "There is a certain ugliness more beautiful than beauty" wonderful quote btw.His bizzare style is what makes it beautiful,also i love the details in his artworks..

It's cleverly done. I've always found this sort of picture unsettling. I recall one of the Green Man that frightened me.

I'm so glad I found your channel. Your videos are lovely, educational and informative 💗🙏🏼

6 years of Art history in the 90s. Travelled the world and experienced art. Bringing your content to alot of creative under privilege youth. Thank you for bringing the back story of art! Anger, passion, injustice, sexism, violence, motivation, survival. Art is the visual documentation of history, outrage and change. Brovo!!

thank you so much!

That’s what I call being “down to earth”

I love the creativity. Awesome.

After watching and listening to many of your vids, I find myself now wanting these prints in my home. You are costing me a lot of money!!!!

Saw his paintings at the louvre, very intriguing :)

Thank you! I think I just found my favorite classical painter.

The personality of the artist along with the combination of both seen and unseen powers of the world, make plant life so humanized.

These are like my favorite vids right now LOL the laser eyes was one of the best things ever HAHAHAHA

Ive never seen these paintings before they’re very unique and interesting to look at. Also enjoyed your editing

damn talk about speedy getting into my reccomended this deserves a lot more recognition

Thank you!

I absolutely adored this - thank you so much! Arcimboldo's works have fascinated me since I discovered them as a child. I learned of pareidolia (sp?) through them and have been delighting in this brain trick ever since. Your elucidations and gentle humour are a really satisfying experience to have - thank you so much!

Sassy editing! Love it!😊

Honestly, so incredibly talented. How hard is it to make something look like two things at once? A tree, and a face. A bowl of meat, and a head. How incredible.

Will you listen! I am not the fruit face master! Everyone: He is the fruit face master!

Honestly your videos could be three times as long and I'd still watch them!

winter looks like something out of scary stories to tell in the dark

Your videos are such quality content. I’ve been binging them.

I'm jealous of such talent, I have none although I've tried. The paintings are amazing.

Dear Art Deco, your videos are sooooo entertaining and thoughtfully made (I could watch them all day), but that jump scare at 6:49 scared the heck out of me 😅

Bravo! Another great video! 💙💚🤎💛❤💜🧡💗💚

I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT SAW SCARY GHOST PEOPLE IN MY BATHROOM TILE, and when its like the middle of the night its even scarier😭

I recently started a new cross stitch project, of Arcimboldo’s The Librarian. It’ll take me a year or more to finish, but I can put it above one of my bookshelves.

I have never been able to fully understand the repulsion I feel for Arcimboldo’s paintings despite my great admiration for his artistry and innovation. Whenever I visit the KHM in Wien, I avoid his paintings at all costs. They make me feel uneasy, almost disgusted. Due to this, I could never bring myself to look at the paintings in detail, so having your video guide me through them was very helpful. I find Spring quite bearable, but the others confusingly unsettling and definitely not aesthetically pleasing. I think it is because his portraits convey features that are not usually associated with a healthy or “beautiful” human face: highly textured, bumpy, gnarled, and intensely shaded. Also, the inorganic, purely functional combination of very organic elements makes me feel conflicted. The elements the heads are made out of are not by themselves “ugly” (quite the contrary, actually; I especially love the plump peach in Summer), but their re-contextualization in the portraits undermines their individual beauty/aesthetic. What I gather from Arcimboldo’s paintings is a (bad) sense of “too much”: too much disturbance, too much effort for resemblance (i.e. inorganic) - very much unlike Bosch or Bruegel, for example, though. My sentiments for Arcimboldo’s paintings could probably also be explained by the concept of the “uncanny valley.” Even though I (still) do not appreciate Arcimboldo’s paintings aesthetically, I very much enjoy the impulse for reflecting on how and why art can make us feel a certain way.

Thanks for this I actually forgot this completely that these paintings existed

The museeum i work at is going to have a activity for kids next weekend where they can create their own heads from vegetables and fruits, I think I have gotten some of the curators to watch your videos and we have talked about some of the paintings in your videos. I really like your style of art videos. Got me interested in art again and made me visit the national gallery in stockholm twice. Huge thanks and respect from sweden.

My mom being the foodie she was decided to get a replica of this painting back in 2006, proudly hung in our dining room, very fascinating painting. Rip mom ❤️

I've been an Arts teacher for the last 10 years, and the set of Four Seasons paintings is one I always use in my Earl Childhood classes. Toddlers love it, and the older kids always say they find "these people" "very ugly". And they are amazed by the intrincate puzzles created by Arcimboldo.

You're so frivolously discussing """_ART_""". It's great!

I'm new to your channel. I love it. And personally I love these pictures. I've always loved pictures and paintings that drew me in, into pictures that have so much detail and so much to see, so much more than you see at first glance. And I also love art that's a little dark. Such as Hieronymus Bosch. They are totally different in what they are trying to express and yet I like them both for the all that detail and other artists like them. It's not for everyone. But I like it. Thank you

WOOOO I’ve seen the Four Seasons in person! My dad was/is enamored with them. Certainly one of the most memorable pieces I saw at The Louvre

I found your channel recently and love the content! It’s the perfect balance of humor and education lol

I love your videos they’re so interesting ty for making me learn and have a new interest

Another SUPERB video, Art Deco. Thank you. European Royal Courts now promote sobriety. Formerly that was very much not the case - you rightly show a jester. Laughter was sought and promoted as in the so-called Macaronic poetry of Arcimboldo's linguistic predecessor of the previous century. Arcimboldo's food portraits were praised highly by his contemporaries as attested in letters and inventories of palace collections. How we view them now bears little if no relation to how they were originally received. You wisely provide the context and correct perspective and are to be congratulated. Thank you.

Discovered his work in the Louvre! 😍

I’ve never seen any of them but I can promise it would only take looking at one to cure me of ever desiring to see more!

I really like your videos , so much nice information!! Thanks!

I think the last ones says "I'm old in face but fruitful in mind."

The edits on this channel are primo

This is the type of abstract or alternate art I like.

I've seen the "Spring" painting in my school cafeteria while I'm walking past it or eating in the cafeteria. Mad respect for this guy for his paintings to be featured in a school

I realy appreciate this videos

I love your videos.way of explanation is amazing.

I saw some of these when I lived in Vienna. They definitely stood out 😁

he's certainly a master of composition!

I love love your videos!! Please do more of these!❤️ Its amazing! It's informative! it's funny👍😁 it's not boring! OMG! Please do more! Just keep doing it!!

Arcimboldo was the start of legitimate creativity in art.

I would love the entire "4 seasons" set as diamond dot canvases!

Thanks!

Newer sub. I REALLY enjoy your videos very much!!!

To summarize Arcimboldo: wtf.

3:13 This is why I love your channel 😂

Honestly I would’ve watched this video anyway, but I definitely thought you said “trashiest” LMFAO

Big fan of Arcimboldo. Way ahead of his time. :)

I started to become familiar with this dude back in 1976. I bought an album by Kansas called Masque. Which features one of his works on the cover. You have exceptional content and narration.

Me seeing this video at first: My mind: “well their stories are filled with the JUICY details so…”

I really liked the last one.

I agree with the contents saying he was ahead of his time. I was always so intrigued by these, I would love to know why he thought of doing this

I absolutely love the literal “rosy cheeks” lol

I love the four seasons, I think it's a very interesting piece.

Babies who recognize and respond to their mother’s and other faces, gets more attention. Everyone is thrilled when their baby beams at them. Seeing faces means better health, survival.

Eggplants are not from the new world

Its also as if the animals are like the different shades of paint used to create said faces and images. Idk if that makes sense. Btw i love this channel finally something original on youtube i can tell you have scholastic knowledge of art and have utilized it to not only entertain but educate people who may not have access to the same knowledge. Nb4 someone says the internet exists most people dont know what to look up until they are told about what they can look up

When you said let me introduce you to this teeny tiny strawberry, I said yaaayyy.

I was at a castle (skokloster) just outside Stockholm last week and there it was, that fruit portrait!? In Sweden??? In a random castle??? I didn’t know?!? Was shocked. I just sent there to look at the cute surroundings and didn’t expect to see one of the worlds most iconic paintings 😅

I click because I seen the man made of fruits before in a book when I was a kid. And I always thought was a really cool idea.

imagine in the future when art historians see the weird stuff we make today, can see them treating it like this haha

Cool!

The Vienna Kunsthistorische Museum has a large collection of his works. I loved them, when I was a kid.

Omg! I thought I was the only one who saw scary faces in my bathroom tile!