Cabinets of Wonder

Catalog description

Humans have long been fascinated with marvelous and curious things. It is well known that in the 16th century, a dedicated practice of collecting existed as a way to grasp the world. Emperors, noblemen and scholars all across Europe established spaces for holding and exhibiting all sorts of objects they deemed worth possessing. These cabinets of wonder, also known as cabinets of curiosities, soon became both scientific tools to study the natural world and aesthetic symbols designed to entertain and to manifest one's socioeconomic status. Frequently included were: fossils, narwhale horns, and precious stones; sculptures, paintings and porcelain; astrolabes, clocks, and automatons, and much more. In this course, we will delve into the history of cabinets of wonder and ask what has made them so fascinating for so many centuries. We will explore their history, which began in antiquity, and has lasted well into our contemporary era. We will also look more closely into Stanford's own related history and the objects located in the Cantor Museum, where Jane and Leland Stanford established a collection to commemorate their son. This local installation by Mark Dion, one of the best known contemporary artists working within the tradition of cabinets of wonder, is dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr. and his love of collecting. It will serve as a starting point for our exploration as we examine the associated feelings of power, melancholy and mourning: https://museum.stanford.edu/exhibitions/melancholy-museum-love-death-and-mourning-stanford.