Chamber of Art and Curiosities of the Württemberg dukes

Idealized view of the Kunstkammer in the Old Lusthaus with the round music table still preserved today , etching around 1670

View into today's art chamber

The cabinet of curiosities of the Dukes of Württemberg was a predominantly representation serving collection of art, natural history and curiosities that of I. Herzog Friedrich was founded. Today the collection is a staged component of the museum concept Wahre Schätze in the Württemberg State Museum and is shown in the Old Palace in Stuttgart . It is also the previous collection of the State Museum for Natural History Stuttgart .

history

It was first mentioned in 1596 in a report by the Basel doctor Felix Platter . Duke Friedrich I, who ruled from 1593 to 1608, had an understanding of art and historical interests. He laid the foundation of the collection, which initially consisted of objects brought with him from his travels to Italy, Hungary and areas of today's Austria. Even before he took office in Württemberg, he initiated excavations for Roman artefacts in Mandeure , which belonged to his Mömpelgard rule . The creation of a coin collection also goes back to him. Between 1598 and 1600, Friedrich tried to get coins for his cabinet of curiosities, which supposedly turned to gold through the touch of a “bewitched maid”. Around 1600 the Duke visited art dealers in Venice and bought antiques. He also collected objects from the New World . Old bills show that he bought Indian things from Levinus Hulsius in Nuremberg . However, at that time both American and East Asian cultures were referred to as Indian . Friedrich had silver implements confiscated from monasteries that had not yet been secularized in order to keep it in his treasury. After the death of Duchess Sibylla in 1614, parts of her estate ended up in the Kunstkammer. These include the two cups made of mother-of-pearl in the shape of a snail, set in gold, bowls and beakers made of ivory , as well as a black desk decorated with precious stones , the so-called Mömpelgarder cabinet . The trunks were also in the chamber ; these were pieces of jewelry that could not be sold. These gems were mainly pieces with a high material value, the artistic value of which, however, is not rated very highly by today's standards.

Bacchus with Faun Pressing Grapes (16th Century)

In 1634, after the Battle of Nördlingen in the Thirty Years' War , the collection was looted and divided among the victors. It was rebuilt and expanded by Johann Friedrich's successor, Duke Eberhard III , after his return from Strasbourg. He had them presented in the New Lusthaus in Stuttgart in 1642 and hired an archivist to look after them. Originally the collection of the Kunstkammer consisted mainly of pieces from classical, especially Roman antiquity, later it was also joined by coin collections, natural objects of all kinds, dishes, gifts from other princes and curiosities of all kinds. The dukes used the Kunstkammer to show their guests their treasures at festivals, to promote entertainment and to compare them with other princely collections, also to discuss purchases. In 1886 it was transformed into a museum as the Royal Art Cabinet , which is now part of the concept of the Württemberg State Museum .

The Kunstkammer also originally included an armory set up in the new building in 1611/1612 , which mainly contained weapons and armor, as well as 11 horses and riders and a large number of tournament equipment. For Duke Johann Friedrich, the model for this armory was a comparable facility of Grand Duke Ferdinand I in Florence, which Friedrich had visited in 1600.

Exhibits (selection)

Homunculus in a glass case

Aztec feather shield "Meander and Sun" (around 1520)

The only originally preserved piece of furniture from the original Kunstkammer is a round table, formerly with a globe on top of which, about two meters in diameter, there are notations and song texts in honor of the duke. The statue of Iupiter Dolichenus ( picture ) comes from Roman antiquity and was found around 1655 in the port of Marseille. It is the only identified object from antiquity in the Mediterranean region in the Kunstkammer. It bears the Latin inscription: DEO DOLICHENIO OCT PATERNVS EX IVSSV EIVS PRO SALVTE SVA ET SVORVM . The Kunstkammer contains many remarkable exhibits, including the shell of a Caribbean hawksbill sea turtle from around 1600, which is painted with the Württemberg coat of arms ( picture ). In 1777 the lower jaw of a walrus was added, which was originally considered part of a hippopotamus. It bears the inscription: Hippopotami ( picture ). In addition to natural products, there are also replicas of the great known works of art of the time. The Mercury from the 17th century, by Giovanni Bologna's work of 1580, was present in almost all the cabinets of curiosities of the European royal houses ( picture ). A replica after Michelangelo from the 16th century is the bronze drunkard Bacchus , but without a drinking vessel ( picture ). In the 17th century the works of Albrecht Dürer were very well known and popular. In the Kunstkammer there is the triumphal procession of Emperor Maximilian I as a relief from the 17th century, probably made in Augsburg. Further objects are hunting trophies, nautical and astronomical instruments, as well as Christian objects, including a reliquary in the shape of a basilica made of ivory, Cologne around 1200 ( picture ), or a reliquary box, also ivory, which is said to come from Byzantium from the year 1000. Pieces from overseas have also been preserved in the ducal art chamber. Two brightly colored feather shields with a meandering geometric pattern originate from the Central American Aztec culture around 1520 and came to Stuttgart in 1599 ( picture ). There are two more of these shields worldwide, one each in Vienna and Mexico. These shields were worn in costume parades.

But the chamber does not only contain serious objects. Eberhard III, as a baroque prince, was evidently not averse to crude humor. In 1669 he had a small bronze figure from the Netherlands (middle of the 17th century) set up, a little peasant cast of metal, such a tobacco drinker, and especially since his urge to do so [...] that such should also be the word mark [...] if you put a smoke candle underneath it, it will blow smoke from itself in different places (from the inventories of 1705 and 1723). Werner Fleischhauer writes: In its contradictions it is a genuinely baroque idea that such a crude figure [became] the symbol of a collection to which the Duke had just now set a scientific task to a certain extent.

literature

Werner Fleischhauer : The history of the art chamber of the dukes of Württemberg in Stuttgart . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-17-002773-5 .
Katharina Küster, Ulrike Andres ao: True treasures art chamber . Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7995-1142-1 .
Julius von Schlosser : The art and wonder chambers of the late Renaissance. A contribution to the history of collecting. Leipzig 1908.

Web link

Individual evidence

↑ Katharina Küster, Ulrike Andres and others: True treasures art chamber . Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7995-1142-1 , p. 11 ff.
↑ Werner Fleischhauer: The history of the art chamber of the dukes of Württemberg in Stuttgart . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-17-002773-5 .
↑ Werner Fleischhauer: The history of the art chamber of the dukes of Württemberg in Stuttgart . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-17-002773-5 , p. 85.

[1] Katharina Küster, Ulrike Andres and others: True treasures art chamber . Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7995-1142-1 , p. 11 ff.

[2] Werner Fleischhauer: The history of the art chamber of the dukes of Württemberg in Stuttgart . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-17-002773-5 .

[3] Werner Fleischhauer: The history of the art chamber of the dukes of Württemberg in Stuttgart . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-17-002773-5 , p. 85.