# Pairs of Allegories [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on wood or canvas ## Commentary In correspondence to the Four Seasons was the series created three years later in 1566, the Four Elements. Through a paired arrangement of the qualities in the objects, warm-cold and damp-dry, the elements correspond to the seasons. Thus, the warm-dry summer corresponds to fire, the cold-damp winter to water, the warm-moist spring to air and the cold-dry autumn to earth. Thereby, through the arrangement of the heads, turned to the left or to the right, corresponding pairs face each other and form a unit. So, if desired, they could be arranged into a pair-grouping in which each head in one series would face its corresponding head in the other, as follows: Spring - Air, Summer - Fire, Autumn - Earth, Winter - Water. This picture shows the pairs Air \(Private collection\)- Spring \(Madrid\) as well as Summer \(Vienna\) - Fire \(Vienna\). ## Related artworks - [Air]() - [Archduchess Anna, Daughter of Emperor Maximilian II]() - [Archduchess Johanna]() - [Autumn]() - [Autumn]() - [Birds]() - [Birds]() - [Birds]() - [Birds]() - [Blackbuck]() - [Blue-Headed Quail-Dove]() - [Bust of a Daughter of Ferdinand I]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()