Between Caprices and Wonders: An analysis of the representation and circulation of the American fauna from the Four Elements by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1525-1593)

• Grant number: 22/11960-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2023
• End date: March 06, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History
• Principal Investigator: Patricia Dalcanale Meneses
• Grantee: Janaína da Silva Fonseca
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/17961-5 - From New to Old World: An analysis of the representation and circulation of American fauna based on the Four Elements by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1560-1580), BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This research project proposes an analysis of the Quattro Elementi set (1566) made by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593), an Italian painter of the 16th century, born in the Duchy of Milan. Arcimboldo worked in Vienna, from 1562, as a court artist for the Habsburgs and there he developed much of his best-known work. During the period of the painter's artistic activity, Europe developed a growing interest in objects from the American continent, among these objects one can highlight part of its biodiversities, such as plants and animals. The main objective of the work is to understand the impact of the circulation and representation of these objects in Europe, together with the historical process of disputes, adaptation, and exploration that permeates the transcultural relationship established by the circulation of live or dead specimens between territories located in the New and Old World. . The idea is to historicize the addition of American fauna and flora in the artistic milieu and to think not only about the agency of Europeans, especially Arcimboldo and the imperial court of the Habsburgs, but also the agency of these objects that change their symbology in the circulation between continents, serving sometimes of the social status of knowledge in the cabinet of curiosities, sometimes as physical proof of the otherness of the new territories and their inhabitants.