Existing comment:
The Chamber of Wonders: "Theater of the Universe":
This collection -- also including the Hall of Arms and Armor and the Collector's Study -- is presented as if formed by a nobleman in the circle of Archdukes Albert and Isabella, royal governors of the Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium) on behalf of Spain. They are portrayed in the painting The Archdukes Visiting a Collector's Cabinet to your left. "Wonders" that delighted and astonished viewers were part of many 17th-century collections. A wonder could be anything out of the ordinary -- thus extra-ordinary -- that provoked wonderment. For many, this sparked curiosity, which led to the desire for knowledge.
A collection might be conceived as a personal world in which every object played its part, as everything in the larger universe was believed to do, thus being a "theater of the universe," as proposed by the Flemish writer Samuel Quiccheberg, advisor to the duke of Bavaria in the late 1500s. Taken together, the assembled objects could be considered a kind of portrait that reflected the collector's taste and sense of self. If one enjoyed high status (or wanted to), the objects should demonstrate magnificence as a sign of worthiness and power. A collector might want to display in his Kunstund Wunderkammer (German for room or chamber of art and wonders): (1) extra-ordinary marvels from the natural world; (2) amazing and ingenious objects made by human beings that demonstrated virtuosity or "art" (in the sense of special knowledge, as in "the art of diplomacy"), including objects from distant, exotic cultures; and (3) remarkable objects reflecting one's family, society, and religion. Through the variety and profusion of the objects displayed, this room was a place of learning and discovery. |