Ferrante Imperator, Dell'historia naturale, 1599, the first published image of a wunderkammer

THEMES
Generally there were few rules governing the creation of a wunderkammer. 1) Be broad in your collecting. These after all were renaissance men. But the impetus to be broad was more than good manners. Consultants in this field back then advised you to be so broad that you were creating a microcosm of the entirety of God’s world. 2) Use symmetry where you can in your display. 3) Heighten the magic of your presentation by juxtaposing unlike objects for dramatic effect. Otherwise, there really weren’t rules…so the collections tended to be a very personal reflection of the owner’s interests…sort of your own 3-D walk-thru sculpture. And no two were alike.

Nonetheless, you can fit them into categories, based on their date founded, contents, and status of the owner.

Date founded: first or second period

The first period wunderkammern were founded say 1550 to 1650. They tended to be extraordinarily diverse in their contents and, to our mind, chaotically presented. Classification schemes, such as Linneus’ for plants and animals were 150 years in the future so first period collectors grouped things free of any such notions. They might group all the round life-forms together…sea urchins and coconuts, and the square ones together, etc or they might group together things made of the same materials regardless of the items’ history, thus the “unicorn” (narwhale) tusk would be grouped with ivory carvings and fossil bones. The smaller items would be housed in elaborately decorated multi-drawer collector’s cabinets. Part of the joy would be the marvelous way the contents could be spread out over, say, a hundred square feet when examined but then collapsed into the 2 foot square cabinet when all the many drawers were filled and the cabinet shut. Larger items on the other hand were unceremoniously hung from the walls or ceiling.

The second period wunderkammern c1650 to 1780, on the other hand tended to be systematically grouped, using Linneus’ and other modern systems. And the items were displayed behind glass…letting you see it all at once, a less mystical and more rational form of presentation, for the age of reason was beginning.

Scope: Naturalia or Artificialia

Natural wonders (Naturalia) might include actual specimens themselves, often from exotic locations: seashells, coral, stuffed or otherwise preserved specimens, pressed and dried plants, fossils and minerals. A related category was freaks of nature: sheep born with 2 heads, etc. Finally ethnographic tribal arts and crafts , e.g. feather headdresses, would land here.

Man-made wonders (Artificialia) would include craftsman or artist produced pieces that inspired a sense of wonder due to:
A) the extraordinary technique allowing the maker to accomplish the impossible, such as carving a walnut with the entire last supper scene, or paint a particularly realistic tromp L’oiel oil.
B) the opulence of the material involved–whether valuable gems and gold or worked exotic materials, such as ivory, mother of pearl, rhinoceros horn, etc.
C) the technological advance represented by the article–such as scientific instruments of great precision, and clocks, optics, etc. This category had the added renaissance appeal of providing mankind the ability to measure or otherwise control the forces of nature.

Owner’s Status: Noble or Not
In short was the owner a prince or a commoner, albeit a well heeled one such as an apothecary, a merchant or a clergyman? As we shall see, princes had the best financing, and often worked a statecraft agenda into their wunderkammern.

DREAMS

The objective of the wunderkammer founder is typically some mix of the following:
To celebrate God’s greatness and inspire wonder,
To stimulate the intellect,
To conspicuously consume, showing all the world how powerful you are.

I submit that celebrating God’s greatness and inspiring wonder was a prominent undertone in all wunderkammern. But what else besides wonder does the founder want to inspire, fear or learning?

Respect/Fear
Some of the princely wunderkammern are clearly built with a goal of inspiring respect and fear. The most dramatic of these we visited was Duke Augustus the Strong’s Green Vaults in Dresden. The opulence is extraordinary and the motive clear. Augustus the Strong (1670- 1733), Duke of Saxony, was a contemporary of two of the most powerful monarchs the world has ever seen, Louis XIV (1643-1715) of France to the west and Peter the Great (1689-1725) of Russia to the east. It seems Augustus wished to be recognized as very wealthy and thus very powerful…someone to be respected and feared. He for instance added to his wunderkammer of 10,000 precious objects a continuous stream of jewels, perhaps hundreds of them, made by his royal jeweler, J. M. Dinglinger. For two of the most dramatic of these, the royal coffee set and the model of the great mogel’s throne, Augustus paid a total of almost 100,000 thalers, the equivalent of half a ton of gold (Syndram,pp116-118). His opulent gambit seems to have at least partially worked: he was able to lay claim to the throne in 1697 of neighboring Poland by being elected–sort of—to the post without having to fight for it. (A few years later he was forced to go to war to keep his crown and these costs plus the cost of his collecting nearly bankrupted Saxony. But when he died in 1733 he was still king of Poland and Duke of Saxony.) And his son, Augustus III, who continued in these titles and continued in this tradition, paid 400,000 thalers or about 2 tons of gold, for the Dresden Green Diamond which was fashioned into an elaborate hat pin. (Syndram,p173.)

Learning
Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) built at the College of Jesuits in Rome a large wunderkammer, now mostly dismantled. Etched in its walls was the phrase, “whosoever perceives the chain that binds the world below to the world above will know the mysteries of nature and will achieve miracles”. (Mauries p34.) Professor Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1625) founded a wunderkammer of 20,000 objects in Bologna. “Collect, observe, compare”, he admonished and concluded, “nothing is sweeter than to know all things”. (Mauries,pp 148-150.) In fact it was often discussed that with a good library and wunderkammer, one might come to know in the span of a lifetime everything there was to know. Clearly learning was important to many wunderkammerists.

SCENES

Before considering each wunderkammer we visited, a note about the state of originality/preservation, the final attribute. A number of forces threatened the destruction of wunderkammern. Firstly, war and the big ones impacting wunderkammern were the Thirty-Years War (1618-48), the Napoleonic Wars and World War 2. Secondly, wunderkammern, the world’s first museums, often were dismantled and their collections fed into more modern museums. By the end of the 18th century the intellegencia of Europe began to regard the mish-mash of wunderkammern as old fashion and fuddy-duddy. As the new, modern museums were formed using systematic classifications, the old wunderkammern were raided for their materials with increasing frequency. (Incidentally, some of the world’s greatest museums started as wunderkammern, including the British Museum, the Oxford Museum, and the Vienna museums.)
The result is that reconstruction of these wunderkammern has often been required. The good news is that the wunderkammern were generally very well documented by inventory listings and copiously illustrated catalogues produced by the founders, so accurate guides for rebuilding them are available.

So here is the itinerary of wunderkammern we visited (shown in the appendix to this chapter) and a brief categorization of each one:

While the age, type and presentation format of these varied widely, we feel each one we visited was worth the effort, hands down. Each one will be handled in its own blog entry.

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References
Gems of the Green Vault of Dresden, Dirk Syndram (Leipzig,2005).

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Appendix: Details of a trip to the wunderkammern of Germany & Austria, Spring 2009

Two of us made an 11-day expedition in April/May of 2009 to 9 wunderkammern (wonder chambers or cabinets of curiosities) of Germany and Austria for a cost of a little over US$4,000, including flights to Munich from Boston and all meals.

The sites visited are not the only ones worth seeing but give a representative feel for those convenient to Munich or Vienna. We followed a 1600-mile loop northeast from Munich to Dresden, then west to Kassel, Germany, then south, over the Alps, to Innsbruck, Austria then east to Vienna, then northwest back to Munich for the flight back to Boston.

Generally the 2 of us stayed in bed and breakfasts which though comfortable were not particularly expensive (about Euro$100/ night, double occupancy, usually including breakfast). We used John Wasson’s method of finding lodgings. We had no reservations. We simply drove to the center of town which is generally well marked (“zentrum” in German) and once in the center found a few bed and breakfasts, quickly selected one, asked for a room (which were generally available), and moved in. In the summer tourist season this method might be riskier and so for that reason a list of where we stayed and contact information is provided below. We found dinner spots the same way and ate well. We’d almost always walk the city after dinner which I’d highly recommend. I for one was glad most people spoke English.

When planning a trip, bear in mind most museums including wunderkammern are closed Mondays. The exceptions are Ambros in Innsbruck (closed Tuesday vs Monday), the Green Vaults in Dresden and Trausnitz in Landshut, Germany which are open all days of the week. Winter schedules may well be different with more frequent closings. Check the wunderkammern websites (again listed below). Also it’s a good idea to pre-book a ticket on line for the Green Vaults. Also I used Mapquest for best routes and mileage estimates.

Details of our expedition:

4-23-09 Lufthansa flight #425 Boston, MA to Munich, Germany, cost US$501 per person, round trip(flight #424 return trip).

4-24-09 Arrive Munich. Pick up rental car (Europcar, our cost for total trip about US$500) and drive to the city. Visit Residenzmuseum Schatzkammer, see my chapter 3 and their web site (ResidenzMuenchen@bsv.bayern.de). Drive about 50 miles (1 hour) to Landshut. Spend night at Stadthotel Herzog Ludwig (www.stadthotel-herzog-ludwig.de) for Euro$89.

4-25-09 In Landshut, visit Castle Trausnitz, see my chapter 4 and their web site (www.burg-trausnitz.de ). Drive about 250 miles to Waldenburg. Allow 3 hours for drive. We elect to stop en route at Zwickau in former East Germany, staying at Holiday Inn, Zwickau (hotel@hi-zwickau.de ) for Euro$109.

4-26-09 Finishing the drive to Waldenburg (where there are hotels but which we did not research) we visit Linck’s Naturalienkabinet, see my chapter 5 and their web site (www.museum-waldenburg.de ). Then drive about 70 miles to Dresden, a remarkable baroque city rebuilt after World War II bombing. We stay at Hotel Friedrichstadt, Dresden, see www.cafe-friedrichstadt.de, for Euro$112.

4-27-09 Visit Green Vaults (Grunes Gewolbe) both the New and Historic vaults. See my chapter 6 and their web site, www.skd-dresden.de/en/museen/gruenes gewoelbe.html. Must have reservation to visit historic vaults. Might get opening the day you visit but safer to make reservation in advance on line at their website at cost of Euro$6 per person even though non-refundable. New vaults require no reservation. You might consider staying over another night to see all the other Dresden museums which unlike the Green Vaults (open all days) are closed Mondays.

Drive about 100 miles to Halle also in former East Germany –with a soviet-style city hall to prove it. Stay at Hotel Pension Am Ratshof (www.hotel-am-ratshof.de, for Euro$107

4-28-09 In Halle, visit Francke Foundation, see my chapter 7 and their web site, www.francke-halle.de . Then drive to Kassel, about 140 miles west, spending the night at Hotel Deuscher Hof, www.deutscher-hof.de , for Euro$87.

4-29-09 In Kassel, visit 3 separate museums, the Ottonium, the Orangiere, and the art museum to assemble the former wunderkammer in your mind. See my chapter 8.

Then head south to Innsbruck, Austria, 400 miles and 6 hours driving time away. We choose to spend the night along the way in Wurzburg, staying at Hotel Amberger ,www.hotel-amberger.de, for Euro$98.

4-30-09 Finishing the unhurried drive through the Alps, we arrive at Innsbruck, Austria, staying at Hotel Central, www.central.co.at, for Euro$97. We enjoy a great café called Café Konditorei (at Schneeburggesse 3, Innsbruck, A-6020) serving cocktails, light meals and outstanding pastries.

5-1-09 In Innsbruck, visit Schloss Ambras, See my chapter 9 and their web site, www.info.ambras@khm.at . Then head east for Vienna, 300 miles away, stopping after 100 miles in Salzburg. Here we stay at Hotel Neutor, www.neutor.at, for Euro$120, and walk to the nearby Old City for dinner.

5-2-09 In Salzburg, we confirmed the wunderkammer in the Dommuseum remains closed for renovations. It’s open now, see their web site, www.kirchen.net/dommuseum . Then complete drive to Vienna where we visit the 2 national museums, one dedicated to art history, Kunsthistorisches Museum, the other, natural history, Naturhistorisches Museum. See my chapter 10 and their web site, www.khm.at We recommend visiting one of these neighboring museum on this day, the other the next day. We lodge at Hotel-Pension Bleckmann, www.hotelbleckmann.at, for Euro$90.

5-3-09 Finishing the Vienna museum in the afternoon, we set out for Munich, some 270 miles and 4 hours away. En route, we stop at the historic city of Passau, staying at HotelGarni Herdegen, www.hotel-herdegen.de, for Euro$84. We walk the riverfront and nearby castle at night.

5-4-09 We arrive at the Munich airport and fly home.