In the fantastic portraits of the 16th-century painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, compositions of fruit, vegetables, flowers, books, animals or garden tools magically turn into vivid depictions of beautiful young women, weathered old men or the personifications of the seasons and elements. This book is one of a series of books for children which shows how Arcimboldo's portraits made him a celebrated artist in court circles and a unique painter in the history of art.
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Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-Pictorial volumes that provide glimpses into the work of two very different artists. Journey features Bodmer's paintings of the Plains Indians. The Swiss artist's watercolor art, reproduced here on full and double-page spreads, accurately portrays a way of life soon to disappear. The accompanying text provides background on tepees, earth lodges, spiritual beliefs, and other aspects of Plains life. Readers interested in the remarkable journey of these two men can learn more about it in Russell Freedman's An Indian Winter (Holiday, 1992). Hello, Fruit Face! features the 16th-century Italian artist's unusual portraits composed of elements from the natural world. For example, the full-color portrait of Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus, the God of gardens and the seasons, is composed of fruit and flowers. The text encourages readers to decipher these images and does an excellent job of explaining the symbolism in an accessible manner. Although Arcimboldo was famous in his own time as court painter to the Hapsburgs, he is not well known today; this book will help introduce his work to a new generation. Both books are beautifully designed.
Robin L. Gibson, Muskingum County Library System, Zanesville, OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Robin L. Gibson, Muskingum County Library System, Zanesville, OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a sixteenth-century Italian artist, is remembered for his arrangements of such items as flowers, fruits, vegetables, animals, or books into strange but recognizable portraits of people. This short, large-format book features large-scale reproductions of a dozen works by the artist, accompanied by information about his life, his style of painting, and descriptions and discussions of the paintings themselves. Translated from the German, the text is informative but avuncular and sometimes coy and condescending in tone: "But who is Summer smiling at, we wonder?" Still, children will be intrigued by the paintings, which are seldom found in books of art for young people. A good resource for art teachers and an eye-catching choice for display in libraries. Carolyn Phelan
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great for a kids book,
By "dinaberry" (Bellingham, WA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hello, Fruit Face!: The Paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Adventures in Art) (Hardcover)
This book is very short and tells a story that kids could understand regarding the painter and the royal court he painted for. Each picture has a short story as well as a descriptive explanation of what items are in the picture. This would be a great way to teach kids that items are and still have it be fun because the faces are so silly. I highly recommend this book.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hate the Title, but Otherwise a Good Introduction,
This review is from: Hello, Fruit Face!: The Paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Adventures in Art) (Hardcover)
My students find Arcimboldo's fruit and flower portraits fascinating and scrutinize them at length. Here they also find the stories behind both his four seasons series and his four elements series as products of Arcimboldo's time in the Viennese imperial court in the late 16th century. (Werner Kriegeskorte's Arcimboldo, published by Taschen, reproduces many more of Arcimboldo's works and is even more popular with my students). Prestel's Adventures in Art series forms the heart of my classroom art library because of their beautiful reproductions, but the texts are of varying quality. The best in the series are: I Wish I Didn't Have to Sleep (Keith Haring), Animal Dreams (Paul Klee), Dreaming Pictures (Paul Klee), A Day in Japan with Hokusai, Visiting Vincent van Gogh, Artist in the Desert (O'Keeffe), Gustav Klimt: Silver, Gold, and Precious Stones, A Day with Picasso, Frida Kahlo: The Artist in the Blue House, Marc Chagall: What Colour is Paradise, and The Blue Rider: The Yellow Cow Sees the World in Blue.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pathetic excuse for a book, even for children,
By HH (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hello, Fruit Face!: The Paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Adventures in Art) (Hardcover)
One of the greatest surrealists of his age and what insulting title did the brilliant writers come up with? "Hello, Fruit Face!" As far as content, it's 28 pages long which shows you the depth. THANKFULLY it's out of print now, but what other imaginative titles can they come up with to desecrate other artistic geniuses of our time "Picasso's Wacky Women" "Dali's Crazy Clocks" "Pollock Hey Boozer" actually I can't even come up with a title as insulting as the one they wrote.
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