Early works in Milan

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was the son of the painter Biagio Arcimboldo. He probably had learnt the rudiments of the craft in the workshop of his father, before moving on, in the early 1540s, to an apprenticeship with a master from outside the family. Probably his earliest work, executed together with his father, was the fresco decoration on the side walls of the chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist in the church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore in Milan.

At the age of twenty he was engaged as a designer of stained-glass windows and as a painter of various decorations in the Milan Cathedral. These works were carried out between 1549 and 1558. Another artistic undertaking in this period was the design of tapestries.

Arcimboldo left his homeland in 1562 and went to the court of Emperor Maximilian II.