Autumn and Winter: two heads made from flora typical of those seasons 1575 - 1585

This anonymous 16th-century engraving from the Metropolitan Museum of Art depicts the personifications of Autumn and Winter as grotesque heads. The head on the left, "Autunno" (Autumn), is adorned with fruits and vegetables, while the head on the right, "Inverno" (Winter), is rendered as a gnarled tree with bare branches. The artist's skillful use of hatching and cross-hatching creates a sense of texture and depth, making the figures appear to be almost three-dimensional. This whimsical and evocative work is a prime example of the Mannerist style, with its emphasis on distortion, exaggeration, and the exploration of the grotesque.