I had no idea this otherwise-classic painter did so many of these oddball portraits, so I'm sharing some of my faves:
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527 - 1593), was an Italian Renaissance painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books, i.e. grotesques. --WP
Vertumnus (1590) & Water (1566)
These works form a distinct category from his other productions. He was a conventional court painter of portraits for three Holy Roman Emperors in Vienna and Prague; also producing religious subjects and, among other things, a series of coloured drawings of exotic animals in the imperial menagerie.
The Waiter (1574) & The Librarian (1566)
The still life portraits were clearly partly intended as curiosities to amuse the court, but critics have speculated as to how seriously they engaged with Renaissance Neo-Platonism or other intellectual currents of the day.
Winter (1563) & Spring (1563)
Much more on his life:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo
