DOI Artikel:
Bentkowska-Kafel, Anna: Anthropomorphic landscapes in 16th- and 17th-century Western art: a question of attribution and interpretation
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48916#0084
ANNA BENTKOWSKA
Ul. la, Ib. Salvador Dali, „Paranoiac Figurę" (1934-5, whereabouts
unknown - lost?) and the postcard that inspired Dalis painting. Courtesy
Photo Robert Descharmes/ Copyright ©Descharmes & Descharmes
II. la, Ib. Salvador Dali, „Figuraparanoiczna" (1934-1935, obraz
zaginiony) i kartka pocztowa - źródło inspiracji dla obrazu Dalego
work by a North Italian artist, as if to suggest a painter of
the same origins as Arcimboldo, or by an Austrian artist,
thus linking the attribution with the painting’s recent
provenance. The painting has sińce been published as an
early 17th century work of Matthaus Merian (1593-1650).9
Publications concemed with this type of head-landscape
have generally followed Panofsky’s view of such paintings
as being ‘arcimboldesąue’. Despite a few isolated voices
claiming to the contrary, anthropomorphic landscapes
remain to be regarded as works either by or in the tradition
of Arcimboldo: there is hardly any publication on the latter,
an art collection or visual archive that would not have
attributed such landscapes to this artist or his followers.10
Art history has accredited Arcimboldo with the invention of
composite-heads11 and, almost automatically, with the
introduction of head-landscapes. It is Geiger, the author of
the already-mentioned book on the Mannerist master, who
must be blamed for „recklessly” (according to Vittorio
Sgarbi12) attributing a number of head-pieces to him, but
also credited for introducing new audiences to the artisfs
forgotten art. In 1987 an exhibition titled The Arcimboldo
Effect was held at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Several
essays in a bulky volume accompanying this event
investigated the issue, as formulated in the subtitle, of
transformations of the face from the sixteenth to the
twentieth centuries. By showing the intellectual and artistic
heritage to which modern art is indebted, the exhibition in
a sense retained the approach of the New York show some
fifty years earlier. Its predominant interest was in the
recurring fascination with the compositional idea of a
composite head, as well as various distortions of the face.
The inclusion of landscapes with anthropomorphic features
was not complemented by their in-depth discussion in the
book, but some interesting comments on their attribution
were madę by various authors. They will be often referred
to in this article as the author tries to support the argument
that Arcimboldo did not invent composite heads, did not
paint anthropomorphic landscapes and that the latter were
dependent on different painterly traditions. The author ’s
opinion is based on the analysis of over forty surviving
examples of this type of landscape painting from the 16th
and 17th centuries, as well as relating documentary texts.
They bring stylistic, iconographic and historical evidence
enabling the correction of some, and supporting of other,
earlier views expressed in relation to singular works. While
regarding the depiction of landscape as eąually important
with the image of face, the author offers some suggestions
for the re-examination of existing approaches pertaining to
attributions and interpretations of anthropomorphic
landscapes.
Confused attribution of the works in ąuestion has a long
tradition. Already in the 16th and 17th centuries there was
no elear cut distinction between the works of Arcimboldo
and those of Bosch, the latter often regarded as being
synonymous with strange and peculiar art.13 The famę of
Arcimboldo as the inventor of composite heads already
spread during his lifetime and soon after his death. This is
confirmed by an early 17th century engraving with an
anthropomorphic landscape (ill. 4) in which a stone, placed
prominently in the foreground, bears the inscription
Inventio Arcimboldi. Can such a well-established view be
challenged?
Although the important role of the artist in
dissemination of this iconographic type cannot be disputed,
it is not difficult to show that the compositional idea of both
composite heads and anthropomorphic landscapes
70
Ul. la, Ib. Salvador Dali, „Paranoiac Figurę" (1934-5, whereabouts
unknown - lost?) and the postcard that inspired Dalis painting. Courtesy
Photo Robert Descharmes/ Copyright ©Descharmes & Descharmes
II. la, Ib. Salvador Dali, „Figuraparanoiczna" (1934-1935, obraz
zaginiony) i kartka pocztowa - źródło inspiracji dla obrazu Dalego
work by a North Italian artist, as if to suggest a painter of
the same origins as Arcimboldo, or by an Austrian artist,
thus linking the attribution with the painting’s recent
provenance. The painting has sińce been published as an
early 17th century work of Matthaus Merian (1593-1650).9
Publications concemed with this type of head-landscape
have generally followed Panofsky’s view of such paintings
as being ‘arcimboldesąue’. Despite a few isolated voices
claiming to the contrary, anthropomorphic landscapes
remain to be regarded as works either by or in the tradition
of Arcimboldo: there is hardly any publication on the latter,
an art collection or visual archive that would not have
attributed such landscapes to this artist or his followers.10
Art history has accredited Arcimboldo with the invention of
composite-heads11 and, almost automatically, with the
introduction of head-landscapes. It is Geiger, the author of
the already-mentioned book on the Mannerist master, who
must be blamed for „recklessly” (according to Vittorio
Sgarbi12) attributing a number of head-pieces to him, but
also credited for introducing new audiences to the artisfs
forgotten art. In 1987 an exhibition titled The Arcimboldo
Effect was held at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Several
essays in a bulky volume accompanying this event
investigated the issue, as formulated in the subtitle, of
transformations of the face from the sixteenth to the
twentieth centuries. By showing the intellectual and artistic
heritage to which modern art is indebted, the exhibition in
a sense retained the approach of the New York show some
fifty years earlier. Its predominant interest was in the
recurring fascination with the compositional idea of a
composite head, as well as various distortions of the face.
The inclusion of landscapes with anthropomorphic features
was not complemented by their in-depth discussion in the
book, but some interesting comments on their attribution
were madę by various authors. They will be often referred
to in this article as the author tries to support the argument
that Arcimboldo did not invent composite heads, did not
paint anthropomorphic landscapes and that the latter were
dependent on different painterly traditions. The author ’s
opinion is based on the analysis of over forty surviving
examples of this type of landscape painting from the 16th
and 17th centuries, as well as relating documentary texts.
They bring stylistic, iconographic and historical evidence
enabling the correction of some, and supporting of other,
earlier views expressed in relation to singular works. While
regarding the depiction of landscape as eąually important
with the image of face, the author offers some suggestions
for the re-examination of existing approaches pertaining to
attributions and interpretations of anthropomorphic
landscapes.
Confused attribution of the works in ąuestion has a long
tradition. Already in the 16th and 17th centuries there was
no elear cut distinction between the works of Arcimboldo
and those of Bosch, the latter often regarded as being
synonymous with strange and peculiar art.13 The famę of
Arcimboldo as the inventor of composite heads already
spread during his lifetime and soon after his death. This is
confirmed by an early 17th century engraving with an
anthropomorphic landscape (ill. 4) in which a stone, placed
prominently in the foreground, bears the inscription
Inventio Arcimboldi. Can such a well-established view be
challenged?
Although the important role of the artist in
dissemination of this iconographic type cannot be disputed,
it is not difficult to show that the compositional idea of both
composite heads and anthropomorphic landscapes
70