Style Imitating Art | “Autumn” by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was my turn to pick our inspiration artwork. I have chosen “Autumn”, a 1573 oil on canvas by Italian Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo. He is known for creating heads made out of random objects like fruits, vegetables, flowers, and even books. The “heads” are so clever and really crack me up. A Google image search for “Giuseppe Arcimboldo heads” shows a bunch of different ones. I chose “Autumn” for the obvious reason that we are really truly in the autumn season now. 

The Artwork

“Autumn” by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

About the Artist: Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Italian Mannerist painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born on April 5, 1527, to Milan artist Biagio Arcimboldo. Following in his father’s footsteps, 21 year old Giuseppe began his career designing frescoes and stained glass for local cathedrals. In 1562, at the age of 35, Giuseppe became the official court portraitist of Ferdinand I at the Hapsburg court in Vienna, Austria. He then served as the court portraitist, court decorator, and costume designer to Maximillian II and his son Rudolph II in Prague.

In 1570 and 1573, Augustus, Elector of Saxony, visited Vienna and viewed Giuseppe’s works on both visits which led to his commissioning a copy of Arcimboldo’s The Four Seasons.

Giuseppe’s conventional works, which focused on traditional religious subjects, have been lost in the centuries that followed the artist’s death. However, his human head portraits created from images of plants, fruits, vegetables, animals, and other objects from nature were greatly admired by his peers, have survived for centuries, and remain a source of fascination in modern times.

These paintings appear like normal portraits from a distance, but when viewed closer you can see that random objects overlap to create the various anatomical shapes required to form a human head and face. Each portrait was carefully constructed in the imagination of the artist before assembling the objects. While the assemblage appears random, Arcimboldo carefully placed the objects by specific characterizations to create the fascinating images of heads.

By using everyday objects to create the images, the paintings serve as both portraits and still-life works, while showcasing the close relationship between human beings and the nature that surrounds us. When his portraits were released for public viewing, some book scholars of the time criticized the paintings for ridiculing contemporary scholarship. In rebuttal, Arcimboldo stated that his heads purposely included criticism of the behaviors of the wealthy.

Art historians have been critical of Arcimboldo’s heads, debating whether they were products of the artist’s creative whimsy or creations born from a deranged mind. However, most modern scholars believe that the artist, who was far from deranged or mentally unbalanced, was simply catering to the strange tastes of Renaissance folks, who were fascinated with riddles and puzzles as well as the grotesque and bizarre.

After leaving service in the Prague court, Arcimboldo retired to Milan, Italy, where he died on July 11, 1593, at the age of 67. There is no historical evidence showing that he was married or had children.

While many of Arcimboldo’s works have been lost over time, about 20 remain in existence today. Some of these works can be found in museums in Austria, France, Sweden, Italy, and the United States.

About the Art: “Autumn”

“Autumn” was the final portrait in Arcimboldo’s The Four Seasons collection, which is a series of four paintings produced from 1563-1573. Each painting is a different human profile made up of the fruits, vegetables, and plants representing the relevant season. The series of portraits was initially accompanied by a Giovanni Battista Fonteo poem explaining the allegorical meaning of each painting.

The only originals from this series to survive are Summer and Winter which are currently housed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. A full set of copies that were created by the artist himself are owned by the Louvre in Paris.

“Autumn” was the inspiration for this week’s style challenge. The original of this work has been lost and only exists in copies. It is an oil painting on canvas that measures 76 cm (29.9 in) by 64 cm (25.1 in) and was completed in 1573, the final portrait in The Four Seasons series.

The Autumn season is represented by a rough and surly looking fellow whose portrait consists of a neck made of pears and vegetables emerging from a broken wooden vat with slats bound together by willow branches. His face is constructed from apples, pears, and pomegranate with a mushroom ear donning a fig shaped earring. Chestnuts make his mouth while grapes form his hair beneath a leafy pumpkin bonnet.

This Autumn man may be surly and rough, but my goodness, I do adore him! Honestly, I might want all four of these paintings in my home one day. I guess I’ll have to start shopping for reproductions somewhere!

About My Outfit

When I chose this artwork, I really had no idea what I was going to style for it. But then I wore a slightly different version of this outfit for a few days straight last week and received multiple compliments on it. I quickly realized that with a few tweaks this outfit would be perfect for representing the Autumn head.

I combined lots of fall colors and tones with a mix of autumnal prints and patterns including leaves, flowers, and the geometric print on my long cardigan which closely resembles the broken slats on the wooden vat from which the head emerges.

Almost every element of this outfit has appeared in a previous Style Imitating Art challenge. My brown leaf print slip dress showed up for the Assorted Wood Carvings of Giles Newman and the Embroidered Birds on Dried Leaves by Laura Dalla Vecchia. My orange and green floral kimono robe made an appearance for Dance in Tehuantepec by Diego Rivera. I wore my tan Panama hat with the brown belt hat band for The Last Supper by Willard Wigan and The White Rabbit by John Tenniel. My tan floral cowgirl boots show up frequently in both Style Imitating Art outfits as well as others.

My pile of necklaces includes four that I wear frequently. Each of these necklaces has been styled for previous Style Imitating Art challenges and most them have been styled more than once. I wore my pumpkin necklace for “Pumpkin” by Yayoi Kusama, my wooden owl necklace for Layered Sand Art by Andrew Clemens, my ivory horn necklace for Fifty-Nine Parks Print Series: Grand Canyon National Park by DKNG Studios, and my Shelbee mala beads for “Earth and Sky” by Paul Meltsner.

The only elements of this outfit that have not appeared in previous SIA challenges are my newly thrifted laser cut wooden earrings, my burgundy and tan long cardigan (thrifted in 2018), and a brown floral scarf (thrifted in 2016).

The only changes I made to the original outfit were the addition of the orange floral robe beneath the long cardigan, the addition of my pumpkin necklace, and I changed my hat. For the original version, I wore my dark brown straw fedora but I decided my tan Panama hat was better for attaching the fake pear that I borrowed from my mudroom decor!

I hope you have enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. If you want to play along and be featured with your own outfit inspired by this fun painting in my gallery post on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, be sure to submit your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. In the meantime, be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of “Autumn” as well as Marsha’s take on it. 

Until then, happy styling, my friends!

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee