Master of pareidolia

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter in the 16th century who is famous for his shapeshifting paintings. Many of his paintings appear to be artful arrangements of books, fish, flowers, fruit, meat and vegetables but turn out on closer inspection to be pictures of people. Arcimboldo’s visions came from his imagination and many critics at the time questioned his sanity. One of his most famous paintings looks like a straw basket brimming over with apples, grapes, pears and pomegranates. However, when flipped upside down the basket becomes a recognisable face. Arcimboldo went out of fashion for many years until his work was celebrated by the 20th century Spanish artist Salvador Dalí. You can see the influence in one of Dalí’s most famous paintings, called Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach.

A basket of fruit…

…becomes a plump man when flipped.