Wunderkammer The cabinet of curiosities

Wunderkammer Or the cabinet of curiosities

by Natalia Leal Delgado

“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”

— Albert Einstein

3

Cabinets of curiosities (also known as Kunstkabinett, Kunstkammer, Wunderkammer, Cabinets of Wonder, and wonder-rooms) were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art (including cabinet paintings), and antiquities.

4

“The Kunstkammer was regarded as a microcosm or theater of the world, and a memory theater. The Kunstkammer conveyed symbolically the patron’s control of the world through its indoor, microscopic reproduction.”

The term cabinet originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture. The classic cabinet of curiosities emerged in the sixteenth century, although more rudimentary collections had existed earlier.

5

Collecting the extraordinary and mysterious had been part of human evolution since time immeasurable.

6

7

The three ingredients for success in showcasing a collector’s panoramic education and broad humanist learning were naturalia (products of nature), arteficialia (or artefacta, the products of man), and scientifica (the testaments of man’s ability to dominate nature, such as astrolabes, clocks, automatons, and scientific instruments). On the Italian peninsula, the space housing these objects was called a stanzino, studiolo, more often museo, or sometimes galleria, a name mostly applied to collections of paintings and works of art that could contain curiosities as well, such as the Medici galleria. North of the alpine 8

mountains, these predecessors of modern museums were called Kunst- und Wunderkammer (cabinet of art and marvels) or Kuriositäten and Raritäten-Kabinett or Kammer (cabinet or room of curiosities or rarities).

“The museum was arranged according to a hierarchical taxonomy, rising from stones and minerals, through plants and animals to human anatomy and artificial products.�

9

Suetonius (died 122 A.D.) recalls that the Roman emperor Augustus “had his houses embellished, not only with statues and pictures but also with objects which were curious by reason of their age and rarity, like the huge remains of monstrous beasts which had been discovered on the Island of Capri, called giants’ bones or heroes’ weapons.”

10

11

12

Some collectors were particularly fond of elaborate cabinets furnished with many drawers and secret compartments which offered diverse storage opportunities.

Designated for wealthy patrons, princes and patricians alike, these furnishings could be part of curiosity rooms.

They could also stand on their own, representing in miniature format the diversity of items found in an entire Kunstkammer.

13

14

15

MOMA’S Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities

17

In 2008 The Museum of Modern Art in New york hosted and exhibition called Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities, it was presented from July 30 to November 10.

Wunderkammern, or cabinets of curiosities, arose in mid-sixteenth-century Europe as repositories for all manner of wondrous and exotic objects. In essence these collections—combining specimens, diagrams, and illustrations from many disciplines; marking the intersection of science and superstition; and drawing on natural, manmade, and artificial worlds—can be seen as the precursors to museums.

This exhibition presents a contempo18

rary interpretation of the traditional cabinet of curiosities, bringing together a diverse selection of works by twentiethand twenty-first-century artists who have likewise felt the pull of unusual and extraordinary objects and phenomena.

The works on display include prints, books, multiples, drawings, and photographs, with subjects ranging from architectural marvels and blueprints for impossible machines to oddities from the animal, vegetable, and mineral worlds. Featured artists include Hans Bellmer, Peter Blake, Louise Bourgeois, Max Ernst, and Damien Hirst, among others.

19

20

“Nothing that surrounds us is object, all is subject.”

-André Breton

21

My own Cabinet of Wonders A collection of my curiosities

23

“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.�

-Samuel Johnson

24

25

26

27

“What is admirable about the fantastic is that there is no longer anything fantastic: there is only the real.�

- AndrĂŠ Breton

28

29

Wunderkammer Or the cabinet of curiosities

What would you put in yours?

30

31

References

http://anthropology.si.edu/

1.- (page 3 quote) Old Man’s Advice to Youth: ‘Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.’”

LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. 64” - Albert Einstein

6.- (page 9 image) The Danish naturalist Ole Worm’s cabinet of curiosities was a famous early wunderkammer containing many creatures and shells drawn from Arctic waters. This is the frontispiece to Worm’s 1655 Museum Wormianium.

2.- (page 5 image) Ferdinando Cospi (1606 - 1686) 3.- (page 6 quote) Wolfram Koeppe, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 4.- (page 6 image) Francesco Calzolari’s Cabinet of curiosities. From “Musaeum Calceolarium” (Verona, 1622) 5.-(page 7 image)Dell’historia naturale, libri XXVIII, 1599 Constantino Vitale Naples Illustrated book; Acc. no. qQH41.1334 CRLS RB Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C. (c) Smithsonian Institution 32

7.- (page 11 image)Manfredo Settala’s Cabinet of curiosities. From “Museo o Galeria” (1666) 8.- (page 12 & 13 images)Wondertooneel der nature by Levinus Vincent, 1715.

This engraving from Vincent Levinus’s 1715 Wondertooneel der Nature almost seems to function as a companion piece to Worm’s cabinet 9.-(page 14) Kunstkammer, by the Flemish artist Frans Francken II, 1636.

10.-(page 15) Domenico Remps, A Cabinet of Curiosity, 1675.

11.- (page 18 image) RODOLFO ABULARACH Guatemalan, born

1933 Enigmatic Eye I (Ojo Enigmatico I) (1969) Lithograph 12.- (page 19 image) JOAN FONTCUBERTA Spanish, born 1955 MULLERPOLIS PLUNFIS 1984 Gelatin silver print.

13.- (page 20 from left to right)NICOLAS LAMPERT American, born 1969 Locust Tank 2006 Digital print.

DIEGO RIVERA Mexican, 1886-1957 The Communicating Vessels (1938) Linoleum cut MARK DION American, born 1961 Cabinet (from Project 82 - “Rescue Archeology: A Project for The Museum of Modern Art”) 2004 Wood, aluminum, plaster, concrete, glass, plastic, paint, stone, ceramic, brick and various metals.

14.- (page 21 from left to right/ top to bottom) MAX ERNST French, born Germany. 1891-

1976 L’évadé (The Fugitive) from Histoire Naturelle 1926 (Reproduced frottages executed c.

1925) One from a portfolio of thirty-four collotypes, after frottage.

MAN RAY American, 1890-1976 Indestructible Object (or Object to Be Destroyed) 1964 (replica of 1923 original) Metronome with cutout photograph of eye on pendulum.

NATSUYUKI NAKANISHI Japanese, born 1935 Compact Object 1962 Bones, watch and clock parts, bead necklace, hair, eggshell, lens, and other manufactured objects embedded in polyester MARCEL DUCHAMP American, born France. 1887-1968 Couple of Laundress’ Aprons from Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Boîte Alert (1959)

Two multiples of cloth and fur 15.- (page 24 quote)Samuel Johnson, Works of Samuel Johnson 16.- All the images from page 25 to 29 where taken by Natalia Leal Delgado, in Los Angeles, CA 2015.

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot. com/2008/01/wondertooneel-der-nature. html https://www.pinterest.com/theappendix/ curiosity-cabinets-wunderkammer-etc/

Aditional Info: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2008/wunderkammer/flashsite/ http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ kuns/hd_kuns.htm https://www.pinterest.com/theappendix/ curiosity-cabinets-wunderkammer-etc/ https://theappendix.net/blog/2012/11/ cabinets-of-curiosity:-the-web-as-wunderkammer http://resobscura.blogspot.com/2011/01/ cabinets-of-curiosities-in-seventeenth.html

33