The 14 Best Paintings With Hidden Faces

Rocks with noses, tables with eyes, a bowl of vegetables that turns into a man. Old Flemish riddles meet surrealist double images here.

1. 1
   Vertumnus

   Arcimboldo's portrait of Emperor Rudolf II as the Roman god of the seasons, built from fruit, vegetables and flowers.
   1000pts

   BE
2. 2
   Mae West's Face

   Dalí's 1934–35 room design where curtains, a fireplace and a sofa become the actress's hair, nose and lips.
   753pts
3. 3
   Anthropomorphic Landscape (Merian)

   Matthäus Merian's 1624 etching of a hilly landscape that reads as a man's head lying on its side.
   652pts
4. 4
   The Tree Man

   Bosch's hollow giant with a tavern in its body and a human face turned back toward the viewer.
   565pts
5. 5
   Anthropomorphic Landscape (Momper)

   Joos de Momper's mountain scene where cliffs, trees and paths add up to a giant head.
   565pts
6. 6
   The Great Masturbator

   Dalí's 1929 painting built around a huge sleeping profile he said came from a rock at Cap de Creus.
   565pts
7. 7
   The Librarian

   Arcimboldo's figure assembled entirely from books, with bookmarks for fingers.
   565pts
8. 8
   The Garden of Earthly Delights

   Bosch's triptych, where a yellow rock in the Eden panel forms a profile with a sharp nose and insect eyelashes.
   565pts
9. 9
   Landscape with a Sleeping Peddler

   Herri met de Bles's landscape where monkeys rob a sleeping peddler under a rock shaped like a nose.
   565pts
10. 10
    Allegory of Iconoclasm

    Marcus Gheeraerts's 1566 satire where the head of a monk is a mountain swarming with clerics.
    565pts
11. 11
    Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire

    Dalí's 1940 double image where two women in a market turn into the face of Voltaire.
    462pts
12. 12
    The Conjurer

    Bosch-school panel whose cups, balls, frog and hoop form a face when you turn the picture on its side.
    462pts
13. 13
    The Vegetable Gardener

    Arcimboldo's bowl of vegetables that becomes a man's face when turned upside down.
    0pts
14. 14
    Swans Reflecting Elephants

    Dalí's 1937 lake where three swans and trees, mirrored in the water, turn into elephants.
    0pts

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