There's Diversity Within Me

Whoever you may be, when you behold

This odd, misshapen picture which is me

And there is laughter on your lips

Your eyes are flashing with hilarity,

And your whole face is seized by mirth

As you discover yet another monstrous detail

In him who bears the name Vertumnus,

Being thus called in poems of the ancients

And by Apollo’s learned sons;

Unless you clearly see that ugliness

Which makes me beautiful,

You cannot know that there’s a certain

Ugliness more beautiful than any beauty.

There’s diversity within me,

Though despite my diverse aspect, I am one.

That diversity of mine

Renders faithfully and truly

Diverse things just as they are.

Raise your eyebrows now and frown,

Listen hard with concentration,

Lend your ear to what I say

That I may entrust you, friend,

With the secret of new art.

Excerpt from Don Gregorio Comanini’s poem on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo painting of Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus, the Roman god of vegitationa and transformation. The portrait was a gift to the emperor after Acrimboldo left Prague to return to his native Milan in 1587.