Cabinet of Curiosities

display window

display window

The concept of a Cabinet of Curiosities emerged in 16th century Europe. In Germany and Bavaria, they were called a Kunstkammer or Wonderkammer, literally Art Room and Wonder Room. They held the strange collections of the wealthy merchant class, rulers, aristocrats, artists, and scientists. The contents were meant to inspire, startle, intrigue and amaze friends and attract notable visitors. The Cabinet of Curiosities housed wonderful items from around the world that Europeans seldom had the chance to see in a lifetime. Some were fabulous fakes, like Narwhal’s tusks that become unicorn’s horns, or taxidermy mermaid mummies put together from a large fish and composite materials by a skilled artist. Some were exotic like tropical seashell collections or 13-foot long salt-water crocodiles suspended from the ceiling. Paintings and curious objects of art were commissioned from the finest craftsmen a nobleman could afford. Many noteworthy cabinet collections were the beginning of the world class museums we enjoy today.

A cabinet of curiosities was an encyclopedic collection in Renaissance Europe of types of objects whose categorial boundaries were yet to be defined. They were also known by various names such asCabinet of Wonder, and in German Kunstkammer (“art-room”) or Wunderkammer (“wonder-room”). 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. “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.”^[1] Of Charles I of England‘s collection, Peter Thomas has succinctly stated, “The Kunstkabinett itself was a form of propaganda”.^[2] Besides the most famous and best documented cabinets of rulers and aristocrats, members of the merchant class and early practitioners ofscience in Europe also formed collections that were precursors to museums