The innate human desire to apply human traits to non-human animals and things is known as anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphic objects have manifested themselves in several different ways throughout the history of art. In the 1500s, Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted playful tableaus of fruits, vegetables, and inanimate objects that formed recognizable human faces. Often, these strange paintings served as whimsical allegories for the seasons or the elements, inspiring later artists including Salvador Dalí, Octavio Ocampo, and Philip Haas.

The inclination to relate art objects to human qualities can apply to works that less obviously resemble humans as well. Because of their scale and other properties, the works of Claes Oldenberg are often referred to as anthropomorphic. Oldenberg creates large, soft sculptures of familiar objects like hamburgers or cake, a tube of toothpaste or a light switch. These works are human-sized: the viewer must contend with them as if they are another person. Furthermore, the materials sag under their own weight and wrinkle like human skin, giving them an eerily familiar quality. Other artists have taken advantage of the need to see humanity reflected in art—by using waxy, translucent materials to form her sculpture, Eva Hesse was able to evoke the human body and all its fragility without ever directly representing it.