Interesting stuff this from Giuseppe Arcimboldo:
One of the most bizarre and distinctive painters in the whole of art history, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593) owes his reputation to the series of composite portraits of heads made up of a variety of objects, both natural and man-made. Most of these paintings were created at the court of Rudolf II, who hired Arcimboldo as his court painter, placing him at the centre of Rudolf's eccentric menagerie of artists, scientists and charlatans.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born in Milan in 1527 into a highly distinguished family, which boasted archbishops (including his grandfather), jurists and artists (including his father Biagio). Little is known about his early life, but his connections with Milanese nobility undoubtedly helped him secure work designing frescoes and windows for the cathedral. In 1562 he travelled across the Alps to Vienna to become the portraitist and copyist to the Hapsburg court, at the invitation of Emperor Maximilian II (his talent having been noted by Maximilian's father Ferdinand I, who employed him as a painter of conventional portraits).
See more of Giuseppe's artwork.
Thanks usk. They're really very curious creations. Not at all what you (well - I) expect from the 16th century. Gonna check the guy out more via Google. Bet he was burnt as a heretic.