Famous all over the world for his composite heads made up of plants, fruit and animals, Arcimboldo still remains, paradoxically, a painter shrouded in mystery. This important monograph proposes to reveal the eclecticism of one of the most fertile and lively minds of the Mannerist period, placing him in the cultural context in which he lived and worked. In addition to the artist’s anamorphic heads, the volume includes an important selection of his paintings (among which, numerous previously unpublished portraits), tapestries, drawings and illustrations, realised throughout his life, from the period of his training in Lombardy to his time at the Hapsburg court.