Thesis ID: CBB001560739

The Munich Kunstkammer: Art, Nature, and the Representation of Knowledge in Courtly Contexts (2007)

unapi

Pilaski, Katharina (Author)


University of California, Santa Barbara
Meadow, Mark


Publication Date: 2007
Edition Details: Advisor: Meadow, Mark
Physical Details: 298 pp.
Language: English

The Kunstkammer that Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria (reg. 1550-1579), founded in Munich in the 1560s was one of the largest in Central Europe and among the first princely collections explicitly conceived as a site for the storage and production of universal knowledge. It was distinguished by its particular emphasis on the representation of the territory and dynasty of its founder and the ubiquitous use of documentary imagery. My dissertation focuses on these aspects of the collection, and inquires into the functions the Kunstkammer served in the context of this Counter-Reformation court. I argue that it was conceived to play a role in the larger program of the centralization of Albrecht's power and the territory's confessionalization in the wake of the Council of Trent. Throughout this dissertation, I analyze the collection's connection to the museological treatise published by Samuel Quiccheberg at the Munich court in 1565. The Kunstkammer was a product of the topical tradition, and it can be understood as a translation of printed encyclopedic projects into the realm of objects. This means that the collection was meant to serve fundamentally pragmatic functions; it was perceived as a site for the representation and production of knowledge considered useful for the governance of the territory. On the basis of my research in the archives and rare book collections in Munich, I anchor my analysis of the Kunstkammer 's epistemology in the context of the intellectual milieu of the Bavarian court. Looking at how the collection was structured by its confessional context, I analyze the function of objects documenting wondrous natural events throughout the territory, and elucidate the particularly Catholic approach to natural prodigies and their role in confessional argument. Finally, I inquire into period perceptions of the epistemological status of documentary imagery, relating the reproductions of natural objects in the Kunstkammer to the use of reproductions of body parts and the function of images within votive practice, and to the natural-philosophical discourse about the powers of art to reproduce nature.

...More

Description On the collections of the Kunstkammer of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, founded in the 1560s. Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 68/02 (2007). Pub. no. AAT 3252784.


Reviewed By

Review Felfe, Robert (2015) Review of "The Munich Kunstkammer: Art, Nature, and the Representation of Knowledge in Courtly Contexts". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 710-712). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001560739/

Similar Citations

Article Boner, Patrick J.; (2014)
Statesman and Scholar: Herwart von Hohenburg as Patron and Author in the Republic of Letters (/isis/citation/CBB001420238/)

Chapter Patrick J. Boner; (2016)
Written in the Stars: Astronomy and Chronology at the Bavarian Court (/isis/citation/CBB800473761/)

Thesis Niekrasz, Carmen Cramer; (2007)
Woven Theaters of Nature: Flemish Tapestry and Natural History, 1550--1600 (/isis/citation/CBB001560640/)

Chapter Rothfels, Nigel; (2013)
Preserving History: Collecting and Displaying in Carl Akeley's in Brightest Africa (/isis/citation/CBB001500476/)

Chapter Leonhard, Karin; (2007)
Shell Collecting: On 17th-Century Conchology, Curiosity Cabinets and Still Life Painting (/isis/citation/CBB000773417/)

Chapter Tosi, Alessandro; (2005)
Wunderkammer vs. Museum? Natural History and Collecting during the Renaissance (/isis/citation/CBB000620127/)

Chapter Gómez López, Susana; (2005)
Natural Collections in the Spanish Renaissance (/isis/citation/CBB000620126/)

Book Neri, Janice; (2011)
The Insect and the Image: Visualizing Nature in Early Modern Europe, 1500--1700 (/isis/citation/CBB001450211/)

Book Fairman, Elisabeth R.; Art, Yale Center for British; (2014)
Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower: Artists' Books and the Natural World (/isis/citation/CBB001500458/)

Article G. Simonini; (2018)
Daniel Weiman and Libri picturati A 16–31 (/isis/citation/CBB788920873/)

Article Yaya, Isabel; (2008)
Wonders of America: The Curiosity Cabinet as a Site of Representation and Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB001030754/)

Authors & Contributors
Boner, Patrick J.
Simonini, G.
Rothfels, Nigel
Koch, Ebba
Fairman, Elisabeth R.
Art, Yale Center for British
Concepts
Collectors and collecting
Science and art
Museums
Natural history
Nature
Science and politics
Time Periods
16th century
17th century
Early modern
19th century
Renaissance
18th century
Places
Netherlands
India
Bavaria (Germany)
Americas
Florence (Italy)
Spain
Institutions
Universität Ingolstadt
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment