The antropological structures of the imaginary by Gilbert Durand on five Arcimboldo's paintings

Abstract

This is the part of a study aimed at investigating the imagery in the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a sixteenth-century Italian artist who is catching people´s attention, today, because of his optical illusions. In this work, the objective is to provide reflections on five of his works based on the structures of the imaginary, according to Gilbert Durand. It was possible to identify the presence of images related to the daytime regime, which represents the paternal responsibility, aspects of rationality and rise. And also, the nocturnal regime that refers to the cycles of nature, the mother, the eternal feminine, the descent and depth, with emphasis on the vegetal and nutritive symbolism. Such symbols, which are consonant with the Renaissance imaginary, reappear at a time when it is dominant the daytime symbolism and the imagery  reading has  distinctive characteristics, although the imaginary transcends spatial and time limits.