Cabinet of curiosities
 
"Musei Wormiani Historia", the frontispiece from the Museum Wormianum depicting Ole Worm's cabinet of curiosities.A Cabinet of curiosities was an encyclopedic collection in Renaissance Europe of types of objects whose categorical boundaries were yet to be defined. 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." 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, best documented cabinets of rulers and aristocrats, members of the merchant class and early practitioners of science in Europe, formed collections that were precursors to museums. They were also known by various names such as Cabinet of Wonder, and in German Kunstkammer or Wunderkammer (wonder-room).

 History
The term cabinet originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture. The classic style of cabinet of curiosities emerged in the sixteenth century, although more rudimentary collections had existed earlier. The Kunstkammer of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (ruled 1576-1612), housed in the Hradschin at Prague was unrivalled north of the Alps; it provided a solace and retreat for contemplation that also served to demonstrate his imperial magnificence and power in symbolic arrangement of their display, ceremoniously presented to visiting diplomats and magnates. Rudolf's uncle, Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria also had a collection, with a special emphasis on paintings of people with interesting deformities, which remains

Cabinet de curiosités
 
Frontispice de Musei Wormiani Historia montrant l'intérieur du cabinet de curiosités de Worm.
Cabinet d'un particulier, Frans II Francken, 1625, Kunsthistorisches Museum, VienneUn cabinet de curiosités était un lieu où étaient entreposés et exposés des objets collectionnés, avec un certain goût pour l'hétéroclisme et l'inédit. On y trouvait couramment des médailles, des antiquités, des objets d'histoire naturelle (comme des animaux empaillés, des insectes séchés, des coquillages, des squelettes, des carapaces, des herbiers, des fossiles) ou des œuvres d'art.

Apparus à la Renaissance en Europe, les cabinets de curiosités sont l'ancêtre des musées et des muséums. Ils ont joué un rôle fondamental dans l'essor de la science moderne même s'ils gardaient les traces des croyances populaires de l'époque (il n'était pas rare d'y trouver du sang de dragon séché ou des squelettes d'animaux mythiques). L'édition de catalogues qui en faisaient l'inventaire, souvent illustrés, permettaient d'en diffuser le contenu auprès des savants européens.

Le principe du cabinet de curiosités a disparu durant le XIXe siècle, remplacé par des institutions officielles et les collections privées. Celles-ci ont joué encore un grand rôle dans certaines disciplines scientifiques comme l'entomologie ou la conchyliologie.

 Dans la recherche
Le sujet a été étudié par l'historien d'art viennois Julius von

STRENGTH AND MEASUREMENT

The discovery of "primitive art": an art of strength
Shapes and shape functions
Deities and ancestors
The living wood

Force and Measurement

Develop an aesthetic of black Africa is seen as a risky business in many ways. Is it legitimate to isolate these objects, that today we call art, the general framework of their relations and their cultural constraints? Can we submit to a test that has never existed in the minds of their creators? And can we finally see in this art - if we 'take on this term - a uniform phenomenon, despite the wide variety of both regional and local styles we offer this huge continent, following lengthy Historical developments often poorly understood? Finally, remember that this approach excludes large regions, including Africa white, that is to say the Mediterranean area with its ancient history, the eastern and southern Africa whose pastoral peoples have given rise to cultures almost without images, and finally these hunting societies, which, even in our time have not passed the stage of evolution of prehistoric rock paintings which are the main evidence of an artistic production that appears at various points the continent. Similarly, we must exclude from our contribution to the aesthetics of black African art the old feudal societies, including Benin. Our discussion is therefore limited to large areas farmers, the true cradle of

Primitive arts: political nomenclature or singular art?

Eugene Berg
Diplomat, former ambassador to Namibia, Botswana and Fiji. Author of 'Non-alignment and
New World Order '(PUF, 1980),' The International Politics since 1955 '(Economica, 1990) and' Chronology
internati''o''nale: 1945-1997 '(PUF, "Que sais-je?", 4th ed, 1997). Works since No. 19-20 to review work
made in the journal 'The Banquet'.

The inauguration of the Musée du Quai Branly, just as the opening
second France-Oceania summit, was a highlight of the cultural
quinquennium of Jacques Chirac. He will no doubt what would have been the Centre
Beaubourg Georges Pompidou, Musée d'Orsay for Valery Giscard
d'Estaing and Francois Mitterand National Library for. Expresses this
place that has done since its opening subject to real and sustained enthusiasm
People and challenges no less significant part of the community
scientific and museum? As written immediately Berenice
Geoffroy-Schneiter, this is "no accident that our west in search of
Spirituality landmarks and turns to these desperate travelers
the invisible. "

Jacques Kerchache, portraits croisés

At a glance the Other


History of European eyes on Africa, America and Oceania

At a glance, and one devoted to successive visions brought by Europeans on the cultures of Africa, the Americas and Oceania. This program is a pretext to put into perspective by thematic series, the relativity of our eyes on the threshold of a new museum. Rather than return to the past, this catalog (and exhibition which is the source) marks a starting point.

From the Renaissance to today, the "idols of the Indians", "instruments of the natives," "primitive fetishes," "Negro Sculpture" or "first arts" were the witnesses of likes and dislikes, revealing reflections on otherness. The originality of this publication reflects historical depth that allows to include these objects in a broader history of art.

The Musée du Quai Branly appealed not only to works of other cultures, reflecting the first contacts with Europe, but also to European works within the midst of which they were placed. The catalog shows as well, in a strange series of chapters, how European eyes have gradually allowed other creations from, for example, curiosity amazed rankings systematic evolutionary wanderings of the images of the Universal.

Throughout the pages, the reader travels with the Nave of Charles V., Écouen treasure museum, portraits of Indians of Brazil painted in 1637 for the palace of the Prince of Nassau, rhinoceros horn cups Habsburg Pre-Columbian

African ivory
February 19 to May 11, 2008


From the sixteenth century, a number of pieces of ivory carved by African artists, from areas that correspond to the mouth of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Nigeria today, came in aristocratic collections, less like objects curiosities than as exotic and luxurious pieces. This exhibition brings together twenty of the oldest African objects collected by Europeans and now kept in French collections, accompanied by documentary highlighting the historical depth of the African continent and its productions and the question of the use of iconographic between Europe and Africa. African ivory presents the public a little known aspect of the history of taste and art history.


Commissioner: EZIO BASSANI

Italian from Varese, a leading specialist in African art, Ezio Bassani began in 1973, to compile the catalog of African sculpture in museums in Italy. From 1977 he taught African art history at the Università Internazionale dell'Arte (UIA) in Florence.
Through his historical knowledge, he was appointed to the Scientific Committee of the University of Florence (UIA)., Editorial Committee of the journal Critica d'Arte, the Committee of Advisers international publishing the Journal of the History of Collections Oxford. He also served on the Scientific Council of the Mission foreshadowing Museum of Arts and Civilization (Musée du Quai Branly) in Paris.
Alongside these

FORCE ET MESURE

Elaborer une esthétique de l'Afrique noire apparaît comme une entreprise hasardeuse à bien des égards. Est-il légitime d'isoler ces objets, qu'aujourd'hui nous qualifions d'œuvres d'art, du cadre général de leurs relations et de leurs contraintes culturelles ? Peut-on les soumettre à un critère qui n'a jamais existé dans la pensée de leurs créateurs ? Et peut-on, enfin, voir dans cet art - si l'on s' en tient à ce terme - un phénomène uniforme, malgré la grande variété de styles tant régionaux que locaux que nous offre cet énorme continent, à la suite de longues évolutions historiques souvent mal connues ? Enfin, n'oublions pas que cette approche exclut de vastes régions, notamment l' Afrique blanche, c' est à dire la zone méditerranéenne avec son histoire millénaire ; l'Afrique orientale et méridionale dont les peuples de pasteurs ont donné naissance à des cultures pratiquement sans images ; et enfin ces sociétés de chasseurs, qui, encore à notre époque, n'ont pas dépassé le stade d'évolution de la préhistoire et dont les peintures rupestres constituent le principal témoignage d'une production artistique qui apparaît en divers points du continent. De même, il nous faut exclure de notre contribution à une esthétique de l'art d'Afrique noire les anciennes sociétés féodales, notamment le Bénin. Notre réflexion se borne donc aux vastes régions paysannes, véritable berceau de la sculpture sur bois.

See the continuation... ]

DE L'ART ANCIEN AFRICAIN, DE L'ETHNOLOGIE ET DU MUSEE: POUR UN RECENTREMENT DE L'ESTHETIQUE...

Au commencement était la nuit. Une longue nuit pour l'esthétique africaine. Ce fut le règne sans partage du musée dit «de séries», véritable vitrine du colonialisme, de confession évolutionniste et dont l'approche contextualiste célébrait l'Etrange, chantait l'Aventure et la Science. A cette époque point d'« objets », que des curiosités, trésors de guerre et pièces de laboratoires de chevronnés « Civilisateurs ». Il n'était pas rare alors, de voir des sculptures côtoyer dans les vitrines : cornes, peaux de bêtes et autres feuilles de palmier. Puis, il y eut le regard affûté d'une jeune génération d'artistes particulièrement douée et par ailleurs cruellement blasée, en quête de médecine pour un art européen las de son académisme figé. Cette génération vit dans ce fouillis les moyens d'une rédemption...

Une certaine révolution est venue corriger l'évidente injustice, consacrant depuis le siècle dernier des expositions à caractère esthétique pour la production africaine. Désormais, les objets, dans une dramaturgie suggérée par les seules qualités plastiques, invitent à un rapport nouveau. Exit la surabondance, la cacophonie et le "meurtre du vrai" que génère la tentative bancale de reconstitution de l'ailleurs fantasmé. Ici on ne rejoue pas le film de l'heureuse rencontre avortée entre "civilisés" et "primitifs". Nous avons les vrais Stars que sont les objets, mais d'une