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What is a cabinet of curiosities? -

The cabinet of curiosities was an invention of the 16th century and the Italian Renaissance. The term cabinet originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture. Pictured is Ferrante Imperato's 'Dell'Historia Naturale,' the earliest illustration of a natural history cabinet, dating back to 1599. Ferrante Imperato was a apothecary from Naples.

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Origins -

Essentially a predecessor of the modern museum, cabinets of curiosities were found in the homes of royalty and the aristocracy as a way of showcasing collections of rare antiquities and exotic natural specimens. Pictured is 'The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest' (1628), by Peter Paul Rubens. Cornelis van der Geest was a prominent Antwerp art collector and patron of the great Flemish artist.

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Wondertooneel der natuur -

Objects typically found in a cabinet included those belonging to natural history, geology, ethnography, and archaeology. Religious or historical relics, works of art, and antiquities were also collected. This engraving is from Wondertooneel der natuur, a lavish catalogue published in Dutch and French illustrating the collection of wealthy merchant Levinus Vincent the Younger (1658–1727).

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Unique collections -

These objects were acquired through long journeys and organized expeditions to distant lands. This illustration is also of Levinus Vincent's extraordinary depository of curios.

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The wunderkammer -

This unique mode of gathering and organizing collections from around the world was also widely known as the kunst⁠—literally translating as art⁠—or wunderkammer (wonder room). Pictured is an early 17th-century painting called 'The Kunstkammer.'

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The collector's cabinet -

Every object displayed in a cabinet said something about the collector. And the rarer and more curious, the greater the collector's taste, intelligence, erudition, wealth, and esteem. This painting is called 'The Collector's Cabinet' from the collection of the Art History Museum in Vienna.

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Place in society irresistible -

Collecting was seen as beneficial in both an intellectual and social sense. In fact, cabinets served to establish and uphold rank in society. They also proved an irresistible source of entertainment. This painting is by Andrea Dominico Remps (1621–1699), an artist active in Venice and Verona in the second half of the 17th century.

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A world of imagination -

Cabinets were not meant to be scientific—they were a place of the imagination. It was quite usual for a merchant, scholar, and other members of the elite to regale their guests with a tour of a cabinet—galleries that included paintings, drawings, and engravings. Shells, coins, fossils, and flowers might also be on display, as in this 1619 painting by Flemish artist Frans Francken the Younger.

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Dutch cabinet -

Dutch artist and draughtsman Daniel Marot, the Younger produced this engraving in 1756. It illustrates a Dutch cabinet replete with various fish and amphibians⁠—the work of a skilled taxidermist⁠—scaling the ceiling above rows of decorative cases.

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Cataloging collections -

Cabinets of curiosities were always the preserve of the wealthy, who could afford to catalogue their collections in lavish volumes produced by some of the best illustrators and engravers in the land. Image: Levinus Vincent.

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Exhibiting the bizarre -

Larger cabinets were open to visitors who could purchase a catalogue after parting with a modest entrance fee and tour the room. Drawers and shelves were neatly stacked with some truly bizarre exhibits, artifacts that invariably included skeletons of beasts and other deformed or weird-looking creatures. Some of these were undoubtedly faked, mythical creatures that were created by merging different animals and/or humans together (yes, jars of human body parts, preserved in formaldehyde, were not uncommon). Pictured is an elaborate and highly organized German cabinet from 1745.

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Juxtaposition -

The juxtaposition of cabinets saw collections in many instances acting as a library, workshop, and apothecary. By the 18th century, however, cabinets were falling out of fashion as the museum concept gained popularity.

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From cabinet to museum -

Public access to museums and a greater awareness of science, philosophy, and the natural world sidelined the cabinet of curiosities as somewhat freakish sideshows. Ironically though, some of the most famous museum collections in Europe evolved out of the cabinets of individual collectors.

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Ashmolean Museum -

In 1677, Elias Ashmole donated his sizeable and valuable cabinet of curiosities that originally belonged to John Tradescant to the University of Oxford. The collection helped create the Ashmolean Museum, the world's first public museum. Among the most valuable pieces is the reliquary casket of Thomas Becket.

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Kunstkammer Wien -

The Kunstkammer Wien houses an astonishing portfolio of art and artifacts through the ages and constitutes the most important collection of its kind in the world. Part of Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, artifacts on show include this outstanding gold, enamel, ebony, and ivory salt cellar.

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Houston Museum of Nature Science -

Today, there are museums scattered around the world designed to recreate the 16th- and 17th-century wow factor cabinet of curiosities once exuded. In the United States, the Houston Museum of Natural Science houses a permanent collection in a specially built cabinet of curiosities.

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Museum of Cultural History -

A Wunderkammer exists in the Museum of Cultural History in Zittau, a city in the German state of Saxony. It's housed in the Heffter building of a former Franciscan monastery.

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Ambras Castle -

Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, Austria, houses the only Renaissance Kunstkammer of its kind to have been preserved at its original location, a cabinet of curiosities created by Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, in the 16th century.

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Deyrolle -

Deyrolle in Paris, France, founded in 1831 by Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle and located on rue du Bac since 1888, is one of the best-known companies of entomology and taxidermy found in the French capital. Its cabinet of curiosities is open to the public.

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Palazzo Vecchio -

The richly decorated vault of the Studiolo of Francesco I in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence serves as a beautifully ornate cabinet for a valuable collection of paintings and panels.

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Green Vault -

Known as the Grünes Gewölbe, this museum located in Dresden, Germany, is one of the oldest in the world, founded in 1723. The vault, a historic treasure chamber, is located on the second floor of Dresden Castle.

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Kunstkamera -

The Kunstkamera is a cabinet of curiosities located in the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

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Pitt Rivers Museum -

The University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum houses the private collection of the 19th-century ethnologist and archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers.

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Teylers Museum -

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst amassed a huge collection of curios that the wealthy 18th-century Dutch merchant bequeathed for the advancement of religion, art, and science to the museum in Haarlem, Netherlands, that bears his name.

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Museo Poldi Pezzoli -

Milan's Museo Poldi Pezzoli is named after the 19th-century Italian nobleman Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli, who donated the contents of his cabinet of curiosities to leave Italy with one of its first private museums.

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Museum of Jurassic Technology -

The quirky and eclectic collection housed at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles is deliberately designed to evoke the cabinets of curiosities of the 16th century.

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Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities -

The collection at London's Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History include a two-headed lamb, Fiji mermaids, and shrunken heads.

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House on the Rock -

Wisconsin's House on the Rock is another American-style cabinet of curiosities that features among other weird and wonderful exhibits an automated musical instrument room, an infinity room, and a huge carousel.

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Pavilhão Chinês -

Lisbon's fabulous Pavilhão Chinês is a tea shop designed as a historic cabinet of curiosities. It's one of the most visited bars in the Portuguese capital.

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The Old Curiosity Shop -

'The Old Curiosity Shop' by Charles Dickens was printed in book form in 1841. A shop named The Old Curiosity Shop can be found at 13–14 Portsmouth Street in Holborn, London. It's thought to be the inspiration for Dickens' description of the antique shop. Another famous cabinet of curiosities store in England can be found in Haworth in West Yorkshire. 

Sources: (Bionity) (Museums.EU)

See also: 30 books that influenced the world

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