Wednesday 21 July 2010

Weird Wednesday


16th century artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo came up with an odd specialism - painting allegorical pictures of people using set themes such as the Four Seasons or the Four Elements. The person representing Spring would be made up out of spring flowers, Winter old bark and fungi etc, Water out of fish, Air out of birds etc. Old Arcimboldo was somethig of a surrealist centuries before the term was invented.

The Four Seasons are pretty well-known but this is one of my other favourites, The Librarian. It reminds me of medieval representations of The Book Fool, a guy who surrounds himself with books but doesn't read them. I'm abit like that, in that I keep buying books even though there's a growing number on the shelves I intend to read - but haven't yet. There's something very cold about The Librarian, and kind of creepy. I'd probably get on with him, though.

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