Half-Length View of a Man in Plumed Head Dress, in Profile to the Right

The drawing, along with another by the same hand in the Morgan’s collection, was formerly attributed to Giuseppe Arcimboldo.¹ The core of Arcimboldo’s graphic corpus – a large group of pen-and-ink drawings, finished with blue wash – is conserved in the Uffizi, Florence.² Several of these relate to Arcimboldo’s designs for court entertainments, including costume designs for the 1585 winter tournament of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. Though the novel costumes of the Morgan sheets relate in general content to the Uffizi studies, they differ markedly in their style and technique, revealing a different hand. While unrelated to his graphic personality, the Morgan sheets may have a Lombard origin, and thus a regional association to Arcimboldo. For instance, the technique, style, and subject matter of the Morgan studies are closer to a study, now in the British Museum, given to Arcimboldo’s Milanese contemporary Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (1538-1592).³

Footnotes:

1. Morgan Library & Museum, New York, inv. 1993.326.2.
2. Uffizi, Florence, inv. 3144F- 3290F. For examples, see Paris and Vienna 2007, 248, nos. VII.1-32.
3. British Museum, London, inv. 1860,0616.60.