The Cook, Giuseppe Arcimboldo

The Hand

The hands are intriguing in The Cook because despite creating the movement and momentum in the work by opening the cloche, they are relegated to the far side and corner of the composition. What Arcimboldo does to make them stand out, then, is a kind of chiaroscuro where the hands have an almost white, brilliant highlight, against a deep saturated black. This does a couple of things in the painting. It makes the hands appear as though they are close to an overhead light, creating space and dimension; It separates the tone of human flesh from the meat to give more focus and distinction to the to the cook himself; Finally, it facilitates a reflection in the cloche that make both elements feel real and interactive.

The Foliage

The foliage, tucked away into the corner of this piece, is actually my favorite element in the composition. The foliage is modeled so that with each overlapping leaf, the hues get brighter and more saturated. This, together with the shading under each leaf, provides the illusion that these leaves occupy space and are resting on top of each other.Moreover, the leaves are shaped by playfully natural curved lines, as well as having more abstract splotches of color This allows just enough ambiguity that they can be interpreted in multiple ways. When viewed from the right side up, they look like rational leaves under a silver plate. But upside down, they crest the plate like feathers sticking out of the man's hat, creating line and movement from the top left corner of the piece down through the lemon and head towards the man's mouth.

The Cloche

With such a compositionally simple painting, ordinarily mundane elements like the cloche become highly important and visible. Part of what makes this painting so successful is the modeling of the cloche. Arcimboldo uses geometry to create concentric circles that make the cloche feel rational and realistic, despite a painterly style. The lighting is also masterfully done; There is a clear source of light from the overhead, and light and shadow contrast as the curvature of the cloche alternates from convex to concave towards its center. Overall, the modeling is very realistic and successful.

The Suckling Pig

The suckling pig is central to The Cook, and is very technically impressive. The actual body of the pig is foreshortened towards the edge of the plate, and simultaneously has a sheer higlight along its ribs. This gives the illusion that the pig is spilling out away from the center of the dish towards the viewer, creating the illusion of depth. This is supplemented by the darker tones along the pigs head, and the shadows under its neck and ears that make the head feel as though its falling further in to the painting.

The Face

The focal point of this piece is the meat piled in such a manner that it resembles a human face. The effect of this face and the piece as a whole is dependent on a feeling of uncanniness; Such that the face is unmistakably both anthropomorphic and made of cooked meats. Arcimboldo accomplishes this latter through a few methods, but notably around the "nose" and "mouth" his painterly approach results in streaky and stippled brush marks. This, in tandum with his range of warm saturated hues gives the illusion of realistic, taught, and porous skin on the meat. This means that Arcimboldo can use less defined figures (i.e. everything outside of the suckling pig and roast bird) without sacrificing the illusion or effect of it being meat.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo's The Cook is a delightly playful and twisted example of Renaissance portraiture. The mastery of skill exhibited in the piece allows for abstract and painterly elements that still feel rationally composed. While the piece feels painterly, with visible brush strokes and hand techniques, Arcimboldo still manages to create eerily realistic textures of skin in the meat and the hands, and strikingly realistic reflections in and lighting of silver in the plate and the cloche. Through the dimension and saturation of a pile of meaty morsels, Arcimboldo makes a visually stunning and bold work that is not only viewable from multiple orientations, but who's every detail feels important, well concieved, and well executed.