Depictions of art collections was a specialty of Antwerp painters in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.These collections were referred to as Cabinet Collections. The cabinets are antecedents of modern museums and art galleries. They were established throughout Europe by nobility and a rising middle class. The cabinets were in fact rooms in which a collector's art was exhibited.
Paintings of these art collections fascinate me. The deft recognizable representation on a single canvas of the diverse art produced by other artist (painters, sculpture, still life and other objects) required great skill, knowledge and creativity. Spending time with each work is like visiting and art gallery. Interested viewers will find themselves fascinated by the recognizable depiction of each painting and sculpture within the cabinet painting.
Presented here are a few examples of collector's cabinet.
by Jan Brueghel the elder and
Hieronymus Francken II
I met The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting a Collector's Cabinet at the National Gallery of Art’s A Collector's Cabinet exhibit in 1998. It was love at first sight. Since that first meeting I have visited this Cabinet often at its home in Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum.
The small image, presented here, cannot convey the continuing impact that this Cabinet has had on me since we first met. Go to the Walters and see it in person.
This Cabinet, as with other cabinet paintings in this genre, includes images of other paintings, sculptural images, art objects and other educational objects within its four corners.
Images of richly dress patrons of the Cabinet are also shown, including of course Albert and Isabella. The Walters wall plaque describes Cabinet in curatorial way. This description is based on my own peculiar sensibilities. Some great art can be appreciated independent of an associated narrative. For me the great technical and creative skills of Brueghel the elder and Hieronymus are more impressive than any particular narrative. Their great technical skill and creativity is obvious. Over the years I have examined each painting within the work, each sculpture within the work, each animal and human image within the work and each art and other object within the painting.
Cabinet is a cornucopia of fine art. I see something new and different each visit. Last time I looked carefully at the world globe that informs the viewer of the shapes of the continents at the time the painting was executed.
Also I noted for the first time that the female figure on the right just below middle ground looks pregnant. I wonder why I had not noted her condition before.
As for as I can determine The Walters have not made images suitable for framing available for sale. Only postcards are for sale. I wonder why images suitable framing are not available. I recently sent an email to the CEO asking this question have not received any response.
A few other works in this genre by other promient artist of the period are presented below. I am always fascinated by the the technical skill, creativity, patience and the hard work required to make these images. The artist(s) must have had excellent visual vocabularies to reproduce the images of other artist that are always depicted in cabinet collections.
The Archduke's cabinet is fascinating. Follow the link to the source of this image. Placing your mouse pointer on each image in the cabinet discloses the title and artist of many of the paintings displayed within the painting. Teniers made quite a number of paintings like this one. These paintings are said to be the precursors of the modern museum exhibit catalogs.
This Flemish painter combined this imaginary 17th-century collector’s cabinet with a story from classical antiquity. The man sitting at the easel in the foreground is Apelles, court painter to Alexander the Great (wearing a cuirass). Apelles is painting the portrait of Campaspe, Alexander’s most beautiful lover.
According to the monograph accompanying this image Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the Morse Code, wanted to be a painter. Morse had great hopes for this gigantic canvas (180 x 274cm) when it was exhibited for the first time in New York. The painting reproduces the paintings hanging, at the time, in the Salon Carré of the Louvre . This work was done in the 19th century and therefore cannot be classified in the genre of works done by the Antwerp painters because they worked in the the 17th and 18th century. Neverhteless it is a Cabinet in the sense of the genre.
I hope this little show stimulates the viewer to visit art of this genre whenever the opportunity arises. Some of you might become as fascinated with them as I have.
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