seeing history: in praise of anachronism, folly - Arbeitskreis ...

Ordnungen des Sehens. Innovationsfelder der kunsthistorischen Niederlandeforschung
Frankfurt am Main, 30. September bis 2. Oktober 2011
Sektion VI (HNA Session)
EXPLORATIONS IN EARLY MODERN EXHIBITION AND
DISPLAY PRACTICES
SEKTIONSLEITUNG: MIYA TOKUMITSU (UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
PHILADELPHIA)
9.00 UHR – 12.30 UHR HS 12
Artwork from the early modern period is often experienced today as
isolated objects: individual paintings hang far apart from others on solidcoloured
museum walls, sculpture is set apart on pedestals, manuscripts
are confined in glass cases. However, as we know, patrons and artists
created synthetic environments for viewing art, imposing visual systems of
order onto the objects therein – systems that were quite different from
today’s modern museum aesthetic. The four papers in this panel
undertake the task of recovering some of these viewing contexts. More
importantly though, they offer new insight into how objects and images
were arranged to construct whole environments that promoted a variety
of agendas and ideologies. The first two talks transport us to alternate
worlds via the printed page. Bert van de Roemer introduces us to
strategies used by scientific illustrators to taxonomize rapidly increasing
knowledge of the natural world within the format of the book page. Gero
Seelig traces how the printed catalogue of the Schwerin paintings gallery
affected the perception of the collection itself by various audiences over
time. Eva Pedersen examines the motivations behind the reorganization of
yet another display space: the Royal Danish Kunstkammer, reevaluating
previous readings of the Kunstkammer’s inventories in the process.
Finally, Eva Zhang discusses the taste for Japanese and Chinese objects in
European private collections and the construction of the fantastical
decorative world of chinoiserie.
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