A 15-foot-tall fibreglass sculpture by US artist and film-maker Philip Haas is on display in Milan. The sculpture is inspired by Italian Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s painting Winter (1563), which is on loan to the exhibition from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Paying tribute to Arcimboldo’s exuberant designs for court festivals in Renaissance Vienna and Prague, Mr Haas has created at once a commentary on Arcimboldo’s style and a work of art in its own right.

A puzzle of natural forms – composed of a human head of bark, branches, twigs, moss, fungi, vines, and ivy – the object is both bizarre and expressive.

Completed in time for Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy, the sculpture will travel to the Gardens of Versailles and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

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