Kunstkammer und Wunderkammer: Documenting Art History & History
The Dutch and Flemish Golden Age of the late-16th through the mid-18th Centuries is one of the most critical periods in European history and art history. For nearly two centuries, the lands comprising today's Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg witnessed unprecedented economic growth that spurred significant advancements in art, science, technology, navigation, and commerce. During this pivotal era, the causes and sustainment of prosperity were manifold: active roles in the colonization of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania; growing consumerist culture within a densely mercantile society; and a rising middle-class sector that was willing and able to purchase extra goods for their homes.
With an improved economy, the merchant class could accrue major financial earnings through active trade of their goods and wares - both domestically and via international trade routes. Subsequently, the fine arts became a lucrative enterprise through which individuals across social strata could afford artworks and build up a respectable private collection. Painting proved to be the most sought after medium, to which Dutch and Flemish artists produced works in a multitude of pictorial types: history paintings, portraiture, genre paintings (scenes of everyday life), still life, and landscapes (which encompassed additional subgenres of seascapes, cityscapes, and cloudscapes).
Contemporary viewers would readily be familiar with at least one or two of these pictorial types from a casual perspective in terms of subject matter, themes, or artists. Nevertheless, another pictorial type remains equally compelling as the aforementioned yet is seldom discussed at length: kunstkammer and wunderkammer paintings.
Kunstkammer and wunderkammer refer to cabinets of curiosities, which contained massive inventories of artworks (kunst) and wonders (wunder) obtained by private collectors. The items in possession of these upper-middle-class and aristocratic figures were distinctly individualized according to their wealth, tastes, and travel experiences: Greco-Roman statuary, botanical specimens, fossilized animal remains, astronomical devices, finely woven tapestries, rare currencies, etc. As a social phenomenon, such collections signified the owner's material prosperity and reinforced their characterization as seasoned polymaths who epitomized the ideals of Renaissance humanism. Cabinets of curiosities were either entire rooms that occupied a portion of a private residence or furniture pieces that accommodated dozens of drawers for curios of all shapes and sizes. Given the variability between these collections, many were a miscellaneous sort that displayed objects across academic disciplines (art, science, archaeology, history, etc.), whereas others manifested into specialized collections (art galleries and scientific libraries).
Paintings of this category usually follow a horizontal orientation for the painter to maximize the amount of detail and spatiality on the canvas. With a tremendous focus on the hundreds upon thousands of objects in any given collection alongside the owners and their domestic surrounds, these paintings are hybrids of still life and genre scenes. Figures are dwarfed compared to their prized possessions to accentuate their wealth and the impressiveness of their collection inventory. Alternatively, other kunstkammer and wunderkammer paintings will take on solely still life dimensions in which a cabinet assumes center stage where most of its drawers are open and its contents are prominently displayed. For kunstkammer paintings, only certain artists could effectively execute these images as it entailed an ability to accurately recreate known works of art in miniature form. Often, the terms “kunstkammer” and “wunderkammer” have been used as synonyms for one another or to signify exclusively art/variegated collections; “gallery” or “collections” paintings are sometimes used for terminology.
Although kunstkammer and wunderkammer paintings are remarkable demonstrations of technical prowess on the part of the artists, these images are valuable tools from the distant pre-photography era that raise a number of questions: What were the tastes of the patrons? What types of art would one expect to find in a private collection in the Low Countries? Which artists were considered popular by 16th - 18th Century standards? How do these paintings predict the future birth of the museum? Which depicted artworks have since disappeared from the annals of Art History?
Teniers the Younger situates Spanish regent Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's 1400-strong painting collection within a high-ceilinged room illuminated by at least two sets of four-panel quadrant windows on the left. The artist denotes the Archduke's interest in a swath of visual styles as seen in the dozens of portraits, genres scenes, and Christian paintings that inundate the gallery. In the background, the entire wall is filled with paintings, leaving not a single inch of unexposed surface. There is a seemingly hierarchical placement of the paintings as the smallest and narrowest works - portraits - are hung on the lowest register. The paintings gradually increase in scale and width as one gazes upwards toward the ceiling, where it concludes with dramatic religious paintings. There could be a subtle indication that these images were organized according to the Archduke's personal preferences, with the most favored paintings placed nearest to the top. The remaining paintings that could not fit on the walls are displayed in the middle of the floor supported by chairs and other furniture. On the left between the sets of windows, a tall cabinet is adorned with several smaller paintings on its side and three Classical busts and a gold nude female sculpture above it.
For the purpose of highlighting the Archduke's treasured painting collection, this image was not intended to be a faithful reproduction of the exact gallery layout nor the precise organization of the paintings as they appeared in situ.
Similar to Teniers the Younger's praiseworthy interpretation of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's art collection, van Haecht pushes the boundaries of how to present a private art collection on canvas. An expert in gallery and collection scenes, the painter employs the same rectangular gallery layout as the previous work. However, he positions the entire space from an angled perspective. This technique causes the back and right walls to recede and emphasize the vastness of spice merchant Cornelis van der Geest's even more diverse collection of paintings, freestanding sculptures, globes, astrolabes, and armillary spheres, among other technical marvels. While art is the primary focus of this scene, the inclusion of scientific and navigational equipment on the table near the back-left corner and the group of men in the bottom-right corner examining a globe demonstrates that collectors were not only connoisseurs of the fine arts.
A few recognizable artworks found in the work include Hans Rottenhammer's The Last Judgement (foreground), Quentin Matsys's Virgin and Child (lower left), and Albrecht Durer's The Standard Bearer (lower middle along the central table).
Not all kunstkammer paintings were created to document an individual's cabinet of curiosity. Jan Brueghel the Elder produced a metaphorical series on the human senses in which objects are arranged in a manner similar to a private collection. For sight, Brueghel the Elder filled the fictitious space with an abundance of paintings that showcase visual attributes that were meant to resonate with a viewer’s sense of vision: pleasingly genteel rural landscapes, voluptuous Classical-style nude Dionysian women, and universally recognized Christian scenes such as the Nativity. Additional visual aids are incorporated with a telescope in the foreground and a cherubic figure showing a seated woman her reflection in a small, handheld mirror. As for smell, blossomed flowers in pots, vases, and bouquets are strewn around the left half of the canvas, and floral motifs are embedded within several of the paintings, such as the portrait of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus in the lower-right surrounded by a circular frame of brilliantly hued flowers.
Francken the Younger's Chamber of Art and Curiosities depicts, perhaps, the most common type of cabinet of curiosity, as the content in this painting extends across a multitude of fields. The composition follows an unusual format in which a range of items is splayed out all over a tabletop with several more objects hung across the wall behind it. Interestingly, part of a mirror is exposed on the right, through which the viewers can discern the owner in deep conversation with two guests; two rows of shelves with tiny statues and ceramics are located above the men. Francken the Younger's arrangement of the disparate objects helps to formulate a mini-biography of the unknown owner. This collector can be described as a man of many interests due to his ownership of artworks (portraits, cityscapes, landscapes, still life, sculptures), aquatic specimens (seashells and a seahorse), and foreign coinage. The likelihood that all of these items originated from countless geographic settings is also revelatory of both the extent of the owner's travels and the intricacies of 17th Century global trade networks.
As the 17th Century progressed, the fruits of the Dutch and Flemish Golden Age gradually declined, primarily from economic constraints following involvement in the Franco-Dutch War (1672 - 1678) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1715). Fortunately, the cultural achievements of this prosperous era were not entirely lost as the diverse outpouring of works across genres influenced the styles of artists throughout Europe as kunstkammer and wunderkammer subjects resonated with urban painters. The German-born Johann Zoffany found great favor among the upper echelons of British high society. He was routinely commissioned to produce conversation pieces of his sitters amongst their closest associates in the comforts of their spacious townhouses. Zoffany painted a kunstkammer piece of Charles Towneley, a respected antiquarian known for his interests in the arts of Greco-Roman Antiquity. Towneley converses with several colleagues in a grand room featuring an eclectic grouping of Greek and Roman freestanding sculptures, busts, and architectural friezes that inadvertently chronicles a nearly complete history of sculptural styles from the Ancient world: Classical, Hellenistic, Neo-Attic, etc.
Italian painter and architect Giovanni Paolo Panini conceives a magnificently adorned gallery where artworks occupy practically every inch of the canvas - from architectural paintings and preparatory sketches near the ground level to the intermixing of sculptural figures and religious ceiling paintings in the upper parts of the canvas. In a stylistic twist, most of the depicted architectural paintings are images of actual sites from 18th Century Rome that have been reimagined in a two-dimensional painterly form.
Even later generations of Dutch artists returned to the kunstkammer and wunderkammer subjects and applied them to images of the earliest manifestations of the modern art museum and gallery in the 19th Century. Pieter Christoffel Wonder's Painting of an Art Gallery is deservedly a masterpiece in its supremely naturalistic portrayal of a British art gallery, as indicated by the almost heavenly glow of light that illuminates the paintings, sculptures, and diamond-patterned marble floor. Akin to his Golden Age predecessors, Wonder's painting serves an anthropological function as a visual record of how paintings were commonly hung. Here, the paintings are organized in the salon style, whereby artworks are arranged to fill every space of wall and are fitted around one another like jigsaw puzzle pieces.
Kunstkammer and wunderkammer paintings are notable subjects that present a window into the past or, alternatively, a miniaturized gallery of a private exhibition. In either instance, these divulge considerable information on the slow maturation of the modern museum and simultaneously operate as rich catalogues of the artists, works, and artifacts that aroused curiosity amongst their original owners. Moreover, these paintings can compel one - especially individuals who identify as collectors - to introspectively reflect on how their own collections can serve a dual purpose as inventories and time capsules of items deemed essential for admiration and preservation.
Bibliography
“Cabinets of Curiosities and The Origin of Collecting.” Sotheby’s Institute of Art, n.d. https://www.sothebysinstitute.com/news-and-events/news/cabinets-of-curiosities-and-the-origin-of-collecting.
Davies, Surekha. “Catalogical Encounters: Worldmaking in Early Modern Cabinets of Curiosities.” Early Modern Things, 2021, 227–54.
“Dutch Still Life and Landscapes of the 1600s.” National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., n.d. https://www.nga.gov/features/slideshows/dutch-still-lifes-and-landscapes-of-the-1600s.html.
Galambosova, Caroline. “What Is a Wunderkammer? Best Cabinets of Curiosities.” DailyArt Magazine, October 31, 2022. https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/cabinets-of-curiosities/.
Ganbold, Nicole. “Dutch Golden Age Explained.” DailyArt Magazine, November 3, 2021. https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/dutch-golden-age-explained/.
Koeppe, Wolfram. “Collecting for the Kunstkammer.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2002. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kuns/hd_kuns.htm.
Leonhard, Karin. “Shell Collecting. on 17th-Century Conchology, Curiosity Cabinets and Still Life Painting.” Essay. In Early Modern Zoology: The Construction of Animals in Science, Literature and the Visual Arts, 177–214. Brill, 2007.
Marr, Alexander. “The Flemish ‘Pictures of Collections’ Genre: An Overview.” Intellectual History Review 20, no. 1 (2010): 5–25.
Mason, Christopher. “Wonders from the Cabinet of Curiosities.” Sotheby’s, November 27, 2017. https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/wonders-from-the-cabinet-of-curiosities.
Orradre, Alejandro. “Charles Towneley in His Sculpture Gallery — Johan Zoffany.” Medium, April 14, 2023. https://medium.com/the-collector/charles-towneley-in-his-sculpture-gallery-johan-zoffany-d75dd188b3e1.
Painting in the Dutch Golden Age A Profile of the Seventeenth Century. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2007.
“Wondrous Obsessions: The Cabinet of Curiosities.” Episode. Secret Knowledge 1, no. 14, February 23, 2015.
“The Works: Salon Style at the New-York Historical Society.” The New York Historical Society, 2014. https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/works-salon-style.