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Description: COMPOSITE PORTRAIT OF A MAN (FROM FISH AND SEA CREATURES), CALLED L'AMIRAL oil on panel (pearwood), unframed 26 1/2 by 20 1/4 in. 67.3 by 51.4 cm. Arcimboldo's fame was made on the basis of a series of fantastic composite heads he executed for Maximilian II and later Rudolph II. Both the four Seasons and the four Elements (see T. Kaufmann, The School of Prague, 1988, pp. 164 ff.) which date from the early to mid- 1560s are heads composed similarly of various homogenous materials (such as fruits, flowers, things having to do with fire, etc.). The present painting most probably has as its source a lost painting by Arcimboldo himself; the artist executed very few paintings and probably devoted most of his time and abilities on various other activities for the court. The present painting relates to another, larger version (92 by 71 cm., possibly on canvas), attributed to Arcimboldo which was formerly in the Wolfgang Paalen Collection. The Paalen version was reproduced in the May 1939 issue of Minotaure, edited by Andre Breton. Provenance: Comm. Carlo Cardazzo, Milan Ernest Tappenbeck, art dealer in Paris and New York, active 1940-80, and by descent Exhibited: Paris, Galerie Furstenberg, Tetes Composees d'Arcimboldo, March 30 - April 30, 1954, cat. no. 1, illus. (as L'Amiral), catalogue by F. Sluys Literature: B. Geiger, I Dipinti ghiribizzosi di Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1954, pp. 67, 147, illus. plate 84 (as Allegory of Water but perhaps depicting Maximilian II).