The Milanese painter, a well-known artist at the court of Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg, owes his fame above all to his surprising “compound heads” and “reversible images”, of which this tablet is one of the most important testimonies. The Ortolano depicts a cup full of vegetables of various types which, when rotated 180 °, transforms into a bizarre and plump face with a common tone. The work, of evident Nordic character, shows close links with the world of alchemy and Phytognomics by Giovan Battista Della Porta, according to which plants have the property of treating and healing the disorders of the organs and parts of the body that present their same shapes or silhouettes.