Issues in the History of Collecting

Catalog description

A child's room is often stocked with marvels: bird nests, shells, shiny stones, books, and drawings. The great art collections of the Renaissance began in much the same way as these playful assemblages. From cabinets of curiosities containing treasures from foreign lands, to paintings of nude women by Titian and Raphael, these early collections marked the beginning of the modern western art museum. What do the hoarding tendencies of the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), founder of the 'Kircherianum'--a museum filled with taxidermy animals and mechanical inventions--have in common with Ronald Lauder's recent and widely publicized purchase of a Gustav Klimt painting for $135 million? Famous American art collectors of the 19th & 20th centuries like Henry Clay Frick, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Peggy Guggenheim opened these formerly private realms of display to the public, revealing the complex motives and politics inherent to the practice of art collection. This course will focus first on the conceptual issues that informed early modern collecting in the western world, and subsequently the way that these ideas and modalities later inflected and shaped the history of modern collecting--particularly in the private sector in Europe and America. Throughout the semester we will work in partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art Education Collection curators on a community-engaged project. The Education Collection contains thousands of objects collected by numerous Cleveland residents. Students in the course will serve as "community curators" for the rotating exhibition of the Education Gallery on the first floor of the CMA, putting the theories of the course into practice. Offered as ARTH 375 , ARTH 475 , HSTY 375 , and HSTY 475 . Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course.