Wonder and tell; the story telling cabinet of curiosities
Curiosity or art cabinets originated in the sixteenth century and originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture; in German, called the “Kunstkammer” or “Wunderkammer”. It is a collection of encyclopedic artefacts including archaeological, scientific, geological, ethnographic and all kinds of other remarkable antiques.
They not only served as a storage place for the often carefully composed collections, but also had a clear social aspect; story telling avant la lettre. The cabinets (rooms and pieces of furniture) were the subject of many social events; a form of “learned entertainment”. The love for collecting and the collection could be shared and discussed while opening the many doors and drawers behind which exotic treasures always managed to tap into a new topic of conversation.
The cabinet with lot number 1955 is unique in its kind. The 19th century Italian piece of furniture is attributed to Giovanni Battista Gatti (1816-1889) and consists of a top and bottom of ebonised wood with a central door with twisted columns and tympanum under which an elegantly designed bronze Mercury, god of trade and travellers. The cabinet is also provided with more than thirty finely engraved plaques that tell various stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Publius Ovid (43 BC – 17/18 AD), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus and is considered, together with Virgil and Horace, to be one of the three great poets of Latin literature. His best-known work, the Metamorphoses, is a continuous mythological story in fifteen books in which he sketches the lives of classical gods, mortals and other mythical figures who undergo a transformation, or metamorphosis.
The plaques on this art cabinet tell, among other things, about the beautiful girl Io who is changed into a cow and guarded by Argus with his hundred eyes; Daphne who is changed into a laurel tree after being chased by Apollo; Orpheus who tries to get his beloved Euridyce back from the underworld; King Midas who receives his donkey’s ears from Pan; Jupiter who manages to kidnap Europa in the guise of a bull and many other stories.
With its references to the classics and the central image of Mercury, this cabinet is one big symbolic object for the journey that collecting can be. A cabinet that asks for a good company that opens its drawers with a glass of Barolo and tells stories.
