The Art & Architecture Library is delighted to announce the opening of its new exhibition, "Cabinet of Wonders: A Contemporary Kunstkammer."
In the middle of the sixteenth century, in the heart of a European Renaissance, royalty and nobility from Italy to Russia to the Netherlands began assembling collections of rarities in specially appointed rooms and cabinets. These collections, variously called Kunstkammern, Wunderkammern, and Kunstschränke were, essentially, nascent art and natural history museums, attempts at encyclopedic assemblages of historically, culturally, geographically, zoologically, and artistically significant specimens.
