Bizzarie di Varie Figure, published
in 1624 in Livorno, and dedicated to Don Pietro Medici is a
collection of prints by Italian printmaker Giovanni Battista
Braccelli. The depiction of a variety of human shapes aggregated
from a variety of objects or landscapes appears prescient of modern
cubist experiments. In this book, he engraves baroque experiments
recalling Arcimboldo, engaging in a rarified set of conceits. Some
of the figures are composed of boxes or raquets or curlicues.
The book attracted very little
notice until its rediscovery in Paris ca. 1950. Its rediscoverer,
Alain Brieux, published a limited facsimile edition of the book in
1963, with a preface by Tristan Tzara.
Il Giornale Nuovo noted that
"Thirty-two plates gathered under the title Bizzarie di varie
figure. The title of this album was, the review said, most apt, as
the figure studies therein were bizarre indeed, somewhat
reminiscent, if anything, of the works of De Chirico, only three
centuries before the fact."