A Topsy-Turvy World

"Transforming the human face has remained one of the best visual devices to raise wonder, confusion or joy, or at least to attract attention, because it makes us pass from the ordinary perception of the real world to other perceptive dimensions like illusions, visions, dreams, but also uncertainty, deceitful appearances and even nightmares." (1)

Images: Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Reversible Head with Basket of Fruit, c. 1590
Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, Arcimboldo (2007)
Art, Music & Recreation Center, SFPL

 One of my little pleasures is the upside down, or topsy-turvy, an artistic invention possibly originating in the sixteenth century. Topsy-turvies are most typically associated with the whimsical, and they readily found an audience in the composite portraits of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593). Using all manner of flora and fauna in a fantastically original style, Arcimboldo's paintings were hugely popular for their humor and irony; his portraits are sometimes based on real individuals, suggestive of their professions, such as The Jurist and The Librarian. Three upside down portraits have been attributed to Arcimboldo: The Cook, The Vegetable Gardener, and Reversible Head with Basket of Fruit.

 

By the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,  topsy-turvies had become amusing visual tricks, exemplified by the work of such masters as Gustave Verbeck (also known as Verbeek, 1867-1937), Peter Newell (1862-1924), and Rex Whistler (1905-1944). Whistler's are sometimes called "inversions." I discovered these artists and their works in the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor.

Today's topsy-turvies often depict the contrariness of the world: they emphasize distinctions of age, sex, good and evil, and emotional qualities; they make political statements, and often compare the human-animal relationship. Sometimes, as with Peter Newell's ingenious creations, topsy-turvies are nothing more than absurdly entertaining pictures with rhymes for children; charming and somewhat dated period pieces.

Image: P.S. Newell, Topsys & Turvys [Number 2] (1988)

Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor, SFPL

You can find examples of topsy-turvies (upside downs) as well as books on the subject in the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor, which is part of the Book Arts & Special Collections Center, the Art, Music & Recreation Center, and the Childrens' Center at the Main Library (search by subject: upside down books).

Read more about these artists and their humorous work in resources such as the impressive Dictionary of Literary Biography, now over 300 volumes. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography  is another treasure; both may be found in the General Collections & Humanities Center. The library subscribes to companion databases, available onsite to all library users; offsite to readers with a San Francisco Public Library card. The Art, Music & Recreation Center is an exellent resource for books on the artist Arcimboldo. Take a look at the following books, all of which may be found at the Main Library:

The Arcimboldo Effect: Transformations of the Fact from the 16th to the 20th Century by Pontus Hulten(1987)

Arcimboldo: 1526-1593 edited by Sylvia Ferino-Pagden (2007)

Changing Faces by George Tscherny (2005)

Eyes, Lies and Illusions: The Art of Deception by Laurent Mannoni, Werner Nekes, and Marina Warner (2004)

High & Low: Modern Art Popular Culture by Kirk Varnedoe and Adam Gopnik (1990); especially the chapter: Caricature

Masters of Deception by Al Seckel (2004)

The Playful Eye by Julian Rothenstein and Mel Gooding (2000)

(1) Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, Arcimboldo: 1526-1593 (Milan and New York, 2007), plates IV. 33.

Image: Rex Whistler, !Oho!; Certain Two-faced Individuals Now Exposed (1946)

Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor, SFPL