Feet First?

[Nuala]

The 2 in particular are the girl stood on the rim of the cauldron over a fire, and the the actress stood on a brass ball on a fire. I haven't been able to find them anywhere. I would be very grateful for any help in seeing them again Thank you Sir

 

[Eulalia]

There's a pretty good collection in the Archive, thanks especially to Melissa:

http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/resources/welcome-to-the-cruxforum-archive-arcimboldo-collection.339/

If you've got any that aren't in the Archive, Admi, please can you add them?
And if Nuala or anyone else can add to the collection, please let Admi, Melissa and/or me have them (as jpgs).

 

[Nuala]

Thank you thank you thank you. I have been trying to find these for years. There are even some I hadnt seen before.

 

[malins]

the actress stood on a brass ball on a fire.

Anyway it seems the texts to Arcimboldo's pictures are missing; this one was,

Balance

Some years ago, a rehearsal in front of Master William Shakespeare turned out to be a debacle for this young woman. That was why she had to earn her daily bread as a ballad singer. A career in the streets of London was not easy, but somehow a
disrespectful minstrel song of hers about the maidenhead of the Virgin Queen became one of the greatest hits in the low dives of the capital.

Unfortunately, the royal court was not amused, nor was the court of justice...

The young actress had never imagined that one day she would be given a special stage of her own in front of such a large audience. At the beginning of her public ordeal, a spiked iron pear had been placed inside her to ascertain the state of her own maidenhead. Then she had been forced to stand on a metal sphere in her bare feet. The sphere was made of bronze, but after each use the blackened surface was carefully polished until it shone - hence its popular name:

The Golden Globe...

Some chains and a serrated vice completed the dreadful setting. As dictated by tradition, the ordeal included a merciless flogging. It was hard for the condemned woman to keep the balance on the gleaming sphere, but she knew how important that was - for the sake of her already bleeding breasts.

Later a fire was lit underneath the globe, and the convict immediately learnt something about the heat conductivity of bronze. Then she watched her torturers bringing out a brazier and a branding iron. How she wished Master Shakespeare had been there to witness the spectacle! She knew this time he would have been completely satisfied with the theatrical expressiveness of her performance in the coming hours...