Autumn

A head built from the harvest: a pear for a nose, a ripe apple cheek, a bursting pomegranate at the chin, a crown of grapes and vine leaves, the whole face set in a split wooden barrel bound with willow hoops. Arcimboldo's Autumn personifies the season of the grape harvest and the making of wine, jovial and overripe. It belongs to a later set of the Four Seasons he made for the Habsburg court, the cycle flattering the emperor as the gardener under whom nature flourishes in due order. Its companions Winter, Summer, and Spring are also in this collection.