Cabinets of Curiosity

Cabinets of Curiosity - encyclopedic collection, Renaissance Europe, objects yet to be defined.
The term cabinet originally described a private room, usually for a man, used early modern Europe.
Renaissance - "reborn", a cultural movement, 14th - 17th century, began in Italy and spread to rest of Europe, observation - linear perspective and science, politics - diplomacy, humanism.
Humanism - reacts against utilitarian, civic life, often included women, grammar, history, poetry, moral philosophy.

Ole Worm, 1588 - 1655, Danish physician

Ferrante Imperato, an apothecary of Naples.  Engraving from 1599.

Engraving

Engraving

Painted in 1636.

Shells and Coral

Before photography.  Drawings to document, illustrate written text of findings.

"No-one, gazing upon the multiplicity of natural productions, could fail to worship God in His Creation. "

"As in other late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century natural histories, butterflies and other metamorphosing insects became analogies for the Christian transfiguration of the human body at the Resurrection; Vincent boasted that his cabinet contained every species described in Maria Sibylla Merian’s book on the subject."  -source is Scientific Symmetries by EC Spary.  Link to pdf article here. 


"[H]istorian Roelof van Gelder distinguishes five different motives which, [to] varying degrees, played a role in inspiring Dutch citizens to build up a collection. Firstly, the possessor of a rich and beautiful cabinet could acquire a good reputation, because he could be sure of important guests entering his house. Secondly, the collected valuables could serve simultaneously as merchandise and as investments. Thirdly, the collected objects, besides contributing to the collection, could generate a certain aesthetic satisfaction. Fourthly, the religious consideration that man could learn to know God better through the study of of his Creation played a substantial role for some Dutch collectors. As a fifth reason van Gelder mentions scientific curiosity, deriving from the humanistic ideal of the universal scholar."- source is Neat Nature: The Relation Between Nature and Art in a Dutch Cabinet of Curiosities from the Early Eighteenth Century.  Link here. 


The source for above images and information came from the blog Bible Odyssey. Link here.