BULLETIN ofthe Society for ^Renaissance Studies r Volume xin Number i October 1995 In the Tradition of Princely Collections: Curiosities and Exotica in the Kunstkammer of Catherine of Austria Annemarie Jordan Gschwend E CABINET OF cuRiosixiES became a widespread feature in the sixteenth Century (Kunst- and Wunderkammern generally designate collections north of the Alps from chambers of art and marvels from Italian studioliJ) when both princes and humanists developed the taste for collecting. Although they assembled exceptional and extraordinary objects and juxtaposed oddities of nature (naturalid) with those fashioned by human hands (artifiäalia) — the greater the diversity the better—the princes and humanists alike were not just interested in a random collectionrit was rather an intellectual quest that drove their collecting. It is not an exaggeration to say that this was a philosophical aspiration for a universal and encyclopaedic knowledge and a desire to create a showcase where the inner world (microcosm) would reflect the outer world (macrocosm).2 1 In fifteenth-century Italy, the studio was a room reserved for retreat and scholarly pursuits, furnished with ancient and modern art. See Wolfgang Liebenwein, Studiolo: Die Entstehung eines Raumtyps und seine Entwicklung bis um 1600 (Berlin, 1977); L. Cheles, Tfie Studiolo ofUrbino:An Iconographic Investigation (University Park.Pa., 1986), 22—5. 2 There is an extensive literature on the history of collecting. I list here some of the more important studies. Their bibliographies should be consulted for other related publications and articles. J. von Schlosser, Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance (Leipzig, 1908); B. J. Balsiger, 77)6' Kunst- und Wunderkammern:/! Catalogue Raisonne of Collecting in Germany, France, and England, 1565-1750 (PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1970); Elisabeth Scheicher, Die Kunst-und Wunderkammern der Habsburger (Vienna, 1979); The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe, ed. Oliver Impey and Arthur MacGregor (Oxford, 1985); K. Pomian, Der Ursprung des Museums vom Sammeln (Berlin, 1988); Paula Findlen, 'The Museum: Its Classical Etymology and Renaissance Genealogy',_/OHrna/ of the History of Collections, i (1989): 59-78; A. Lugli, !\~aturalia et mirabilia: II collezionismo enciclopedico neue IVunderkammern d'Europa (Milan, 1990); K. Pomian, Collectors & Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500—1800 (Venice, 1990); 77«? Agc of the Marvelous (exh. cat.; Hannover, N.H., 1991); Distant Worlds Made Tangible: Art and Curiosities; Dutch [2] ANNEMARIE JORDAN GSCHWEND Their origins can be traced to the medieval treasury, or Schatzkammer, where jewels, regalia, gold plate, rieh textiles, ivories and tapestries were accumulated by ecclesiastics and kings. Often objects of rarity—unicorn horns, vessels made of rock crystal and other precious stones, reliquaries and antiquities (ancient cameos and portrait busts) were included for their technical virtuosity and splendour. To the medieval mind, artefacts were endowed with an innate meaning, especially valued for their miraculous properties.3 According to medieval aesthetics, art and nature reflected the ideal beauty of God, and the relations of natural and artificial phenomena were rationalized through symbol and allegory. In 1565 a Flemish physician, Samuel Quiccheberg, set out the organization of an ideal collection, based upon Pliny's Historia naturalis,in his Inscriptiones vel tituli theatri amplissimi (Munich, 1565). The Kunstkammer should be divided into several categories, clasr.es and subclasses, with a hierarchy of high-quality objects,natural and artiücial, arranged according to their materials and in a logical sequence. Quiccheberg then applied the current notion of Giulio Camillo's memory theatre,4 a theatrum sapientiae. Accordingly, this theatre of the world, in all its variety, was hermetically contained in one space, its Contents decided by diversity, abundance, the irregulär, the odd and the uncommon. His treatise defmed for the first time Kunstkammer (a chamber for artistic objects) and Wunderkammer (a repository for extraordinary objects), terms that were already in circulation, but more frequently used in later centuries. According to Quiccheberg, a collection and its objects both defmed and justified the Status, role, and character of the owner, the quality of an art work and its appreciation formmg a reflection of the honour of the owner. For these reasons, the collector engaged skilful artists in his Service to fulfill commissions, staging festivals, triumphs and ceremonials to further promote his power and image. For Quiccheberg, a collection was the microcosm of the outside world symbolically possessed, controlled and understood by the owner, in which objects belonging to a certain tradition of collecting were selected to exemplify the owner's knowledge, power and Status. Collections, 1585-1735 (exh. cat.; Amsterdam, 1992); T. DaCosta Kaufmann, Tlie Mastery of Nature: Aspects of Art, Science, and Humanism in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1993); H. Bredekamp, Antikensehnsucht und Maschinenglauben: Die Geschichte der Kunstkammer und die Zukunft der Kunstgeschichte (Berlin, 1993); and T. DaCosta Kaufmann,'From Treasury to Museum: The Collections of the Austrian Habsburgs'.in Tlie Cultures of Collecting, ed. J. Eisner and R. Cardinal (London, 1994), 137-54. 3 Alan A. Shelton/Cabinets of Transgression: Renaissance Collections and the Incorporation of the New World', in The Cultures of Collecting, 175—203. 4 FrancesYates, The Art of Memory, and ead., The Theatre of the World (Chicago, 1969). THE K U N S T K A M M E R OF CATHERINE OF A U S T R I A [3] It is in this context that I should like to discuss the collection of the Portuguese queen, Catherine of Austria (i507-1578).Born in Torquemada, Spain, she was the youngest (and posthumous) daughter of Philip the Fair and Juana la Loca, betrothed in 1524 to King John III of Portugal (1521— !557)- F°r scholars concerned with Habsburg patronage, the role of the fernale collectors of the family has been paid far less attention, except in the case of the regent of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria (d. 1530).The primacy of the male members of the house (Charles V, Philip II, Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, Rudolf II) äs Renaissance patrons and collectors has always been readily acknowledged, while the women who were notable collectors have suffered ironic fates at the hands of art historians. Despite many studies in recent years dedicated to Austrian and Spanish royal collections, scholars have remained unaware of Catherine of Austria's activities. The collection of Flemish tapestries,courtportraits,precious objectsjewels, exotica, furniture, plate, and books she amassed was amazingly large, carefully organized, and assiduously assembled over the course of fifty years. The result, unfortunately no longer extant, compares in varying degrees of content and size with contemporary Habsburg collections in Madrid, Brüssels, Vienna, and Innsbruck. A vast body of documents, largely unpublished, of inventories, correspondence, patent-letters, mandates, and receipts record her collection. In 1525 Catherine came to Portugal armed with Flemish tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, family jewels, and a lavish wardrobe, the requisite dowry of a Castilian princess destined to be queen. These personal goods that formed the nucleus of her collection evolved into one that later clearly defmed her social and political position, reflecting a particular hierarchy and symbolism. As a foreign-born queen, Catherine used her possessions to create her own identity at the Portuguese court. Shortly after her arrival sometime between 1525 and 1528, Catherine began collecting imported wares, gems, and jewelry from India and the Far East, which were available there in great supply. A System that allowed her to purchase directly overseas was organized, and Portuguese viceroys in India were recruited to obtain goods for her. One of her court goldsmiths was sent to reside in Goa for a number of years with the primary responsibility of obtaining the best gems and Indian and Ceylonese jewelry available for regulär shipment to her inLisbon.To citebut one of many instances,in 1551 the treasurer of Cochin bought for the Queen a jewel niade in India, set with seven emeralds, four rubies, and eight pearls. Her fortunate access to these exotic wares was widely known and often members of her Habsburg family asked her to obtain for them exotic animals (like parrots and elephants) for their royal [4] ANNEMARIE JORDAN GSCHWEND menageries and other rarities such äs bezoar (a hardened substance found in the stomachs of camels and prized for its magical powers). Judging both from the quantity of objects and from their excellent quality, Catherine of Austria amassed the largest collection of non-European objects in Europe before the mid-sixteenth Century,and only later Habsburg rulers—Philip II, Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol and Rudolf II—formed comparably important collections of'Indian' objects. Catherine's acquisition of luxury objects from the Portuguese colonies (äs in naturalia and handmade objects or artißdalia) underscored her position äs queen of an overseas empire, a unique position for a woman of her time and one she was evidently proud of. Her collection was the first significant Renaissance Kunstkammer in Iberia. It bridged two collecting traditions: her dowry, a late fifteenth-century treasury, evolved into a prototypic collection of curiosities with primarily precious and rare objects from the Orient. She was unsystematic in approach and organization, and her collection lacked the scientific understanding evident in later curiosity cabinets. There is no evidence of an intellectual, didactic, or instructional purpose. A degree of personal capriciousness must be acknowledged, however, for her Kunstkammer was not just an assemblage of curios. She frequently indulged in her 'shopping sprees' and with a great deal of financial investment, displayed a persistency which can be judged äs systematic. As a collector she was consistent in her procurement of eastern products, and her collection can be described like that of Ferdinand of Tyrol, äs containing 'natural specimens and exotica from overseas with artißdalia, things made by man, that could be described äs exhibiting Kunst' .5 Her inventories from 1528 to 1570 record in detail the curiosity objects found in other contemporary collections. Many examples fall under the category of naturalia. Some had amuletic or magical properties: two 'scorpion's tongues' (fossilized sharks' teeth); a snake's head encased in gold, used äs an antidote for poison; two heart-shaped jasper stones used to staunch blood; a coral branch to ward off the evil eye; the root of a peony encased in gold, which functioned äs a prophylactic; enormous quantities of assorted loose gems and stones (diamonds, rubies, cat's eyes, sapphires, emeralds, turquoise) and a 'unicorn's hörn' (a narwhal tusk, considered a symbol of Christ). Under the category of artißdalia, Catherine owned diverse mirabilia, or precious relics (a remnant of the medieval Schatz) thought to produce miracles: a piece of rock from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; the hat of St s Kaufmann,'From Treasury to Museum', 142. THE K U N S T K A M M E R OF CATHERINE OF AUSTRIA [5] Leonard to aid in childbirth; a reliquary containing the monies paid to betray Christ; rosaries with cameos, depicting scenes of the Passion of Christ (perhaps carved prayer nuts), others made with coral beads or cherry stones filled with amber; a relic of St Eusebius and a gold St Andrew's cross with the image of the saint, set with five large table-cut diamonds. Even two Indian crystal statuettes wearing gold crowns, collars, and bracelets referred to äs ydolos (idols) were listed. Exotic objects classified äs artißdalia mcluded an Indian crystal elephant (illustrated on the cover of this Bulletin) and dog mounted äs saltcellars, Ceylonese ivory combs and chests encrusted with rubies and other gems, a mother-of-pearl ewer, a gold filigree Indian 'bug', a gold Statuette of a donkey laden with filigree baskets stuffed with assorted gems, small tortoiseshell caskets, and a lapis-lazuli vase. For example, in 1556 Catherine purchased for her menagerie a parrot with a cage (one of many she owned), and in the same year received a belt made in India, consisting of 34 pieces encrusted with small diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, with a large ruby-andemerald clasp. An Indian necklace purchased in 1552 was set with 400 diamonds. Two black and gilt wooden folding chairs and four ivory fans were obtained from China in 1562,sent to Lisbon via Goa. Also enumerated in her documents were countless purchases of bezoar, musk, and civet (a gland of a cat-like animal used for making a musk-like scent) either for medicmal purposes or äs aphrodisiacs; agate and crystal Utensils inlaid with precious stones (to ward off the effects ofpoison); Chinese gold and silver buttons and silk for clothes; tortoiseshell plates and bowls;Japanese lacquerware; IndoPortuguese chess boards and furniture; and mounted coconut shells. Curiously, Catherine of Austria did not seek out art works from Italy, which were accumulated in great quantities by contemporaries. She did not collect antiquities, medals, coins, bronzes, or large-scale sculpture (ancient or Renaissance copies). Nor drawings, significant paintings, religious or otherwise, except royal portraits and retables, which were probably Luso- or Hispano-Flemish in origin. African objects such äs the Afro-Portuguese saltcellars, oliphants, and horns avidly sought by curiosity collectors and seen in abundance at the Lisbon court during the previous reigns of John II (1481-1498) and Manuel I (1498-1521) were not collected. Evidently, her tastes did not lean in these directions. She was defmitely not a connoisseur of painting, her objectives contrasting greatly with those of other female collectors like Isabella d'Este. Her Kunstkammer and wardrobe were located within her quarters in the Lisbon royal palace, in a suite of up to three small rooms with an adjoinmg library, like an Italian studiolo, intended for private viewing with some ob- [6] ANNEMARIE JORDAN GSCHWEND jects kept in storage (locked trunks), others possibly set out on tables. Great importance was given to its maintenance, and its administration remained under the direct and personal supervision of the queen. During the 15505 Catherine's collecting activities became more public and moved to the queen's hall where fetes and entertainments were held. It appears that she became preoccupied with the decoration of the public and private spaces normally reserved for the ruler and male courtiers, and ofthose designated for women. Dynastie ties were reaffirmed by her formation of a large portrait gallery during the 15 505, the majority of the pictures being painted by Anthonis Mor, who was sent from Brüssels exclusively for this purpose, and by the quantity of Flemish tapestries she owned (from her dowry and later frequent purchases), which decorated these halls and thematically represented her links with her Burgundian and Habsburg heritage. Her family consciousness is further evidenced by her 1577 testament, in which relics formerly belonging to Emperor Maximilian I, sent to her from the chapel of Wiener Neustadt, were selected from her Kunstkammer to remain forever in the Portuguese royal treasury. This was a move to institutionalize at least a part of her collection, select objects with some hierarchical significance (personal and dynastic), and safeguard them for future generations. She also bequeathed her most important papers and inventories to the heir, King Sebastian, for his use or for future Queens of Portugal, perhaps in Imitation of her brother Emperor Ferdinand I, who did the same in 1565 with prized possessions of the Habsburgs. The accumulation of these ancestral relics show her ties and devotion to the Habsburg dynasty, in part brought about because in Catherine's eyes the prestige of the Avis royal house was enhanced by its relationship — artistic and political—to the Habsburgs. Both royal houses were closely allied through several decades of marital alliances, and at her Lisbon court she represented the political and social interests of both famüies by the exchange of gifts, heirlooms, and relics, and by the acquisition of specific objects symbolic of a family and/or dynastic collective. Exoticism and a Burgundian love of display marked Catherine of Austria's collecting and also innuenced ceremonial practiced at the Portuguese court during her reign. An account, Nanatione particolare delle gran feste e trionß fatti in Portogallo et in Fiandra . . . (Bologna, 1576), written by Francesco de' Marchi, describes the marriage ceremonies of Alexander Farnese and Mary of Portugal celebrated in 1565, during which there was an opulent dinner offered by Catherine of Austria in her quarters.6 The food 6 G. Bertini, 'O "Livro de cozinha" de Maria de Portugal e a cozinha de corte em THE K U N S T K A M M E R OF C A T H E R I N E OF A U S T R I A [7] and spices served were said by the author to have come from all corners of the Portuguese empire.'Not even Roman banquets in antiquity had so many products brought from such distances.' The waters served at these functions came from the Ganges, from a river in the Moluccas, from other rivers and lakes in Africa and Asia, even from the Tiber, which the Portuguese court judged äs,'la piü perfetta et eccellente acqua ehe sia al mondo'. Oriental porcelain and plate was used to serve the food and the ostentatious display of these wares on buffets and credenze in the palace halls showed off the splendour of the queen and her court. In a recent essay on Central European Kunstkammern, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann outlines the motivations behind these collections.7 He emphasized the 'cultural politics' and ethic of magnificence fundamental to these Habsburg collectors. This was also true of private collections like that of Rudolf II. Regardless of the levels of accessibility, collecting and ceremonial were tied, with the reputation of a collector and/or his collection extending beyond territorial boundaries. From his essay it is clear that there are similarities between the objectives and patterns of collecting by male members of the Habsburg house during the sixteenth Century and those of some female members like Catherine of Austria. A collection (no matter how large or how many objects it contained) must be understood in terms of its symbolic content. Not a mere microcosm, it resembled the world itself; a cosmic view that could advance the political claims of the owner. In the case of Rudolf II, his Kunstkammer in Prague represented the emperor's symbolic mastery of the world, the idea of representatio its principle message. This analogy could be applied to Catherine of Austria, no less conscious of her image äs Habsburg infanta and Queen of Portugal. The implications of her Kunstkammer seem explicit—her collection of Oriental rarities was a visible Symbol of her political position and magnificence at the Lisbon court. By the mid-sixteenth Century, Portugal had reached the height of overseas explorations and conquests, dominating the scientific advancements made in the previous decades in geography, cartography, astrology and navigation. The imperial concept of dominus mundi (emperor of the eastern and western worlds) and cosmological imagery (the armillary sphere, emblem of the Portuguese kings) were promoted through specific artistic commissions. A number of Flemish tapestries in Catherine's collection Bruxelas e em Lisboa ao tempo das suas nüpcias com Alexandre Farnesio', Occanos, 21 (Jan. 1995): 119-25. 7 'From Mastery of the World to Mastery of Nature: The Kunstkammer, Politics, and Science,' Tlie Mastery of Nature, 1993, eh. 7, pp. 174-94. [8] ANNEMARIE JORDAN GSCHWEND promulgated this cosmic symbolism. The cycles of the Conquests oflndia and Romulus and Remus emphasized the founding of a new empire and a new Rome; the Conquest of Tunis showed victory over the infidels; the Months of the Years symbolized control over nature and the seasons; and the Spheres (terrestrial, armillary, and celestial) depicted Catherine of Austria and her husband äs the mythological figures Juno and Jupiter. All hung in the royal palace, which also housed the king's magnificent library, filled with globes, maps, portulans, accounts, and books relating to the Age of Discovery and Exploration. Catherine of Austria, by means of her exotic objects, was brought into closer contact with other worlds separated from her by geographical distance, but nevertheless under her control. Given the wealth of the inventories and her care in acquiring objects, it is evident that she viewed her Kunstkammer, not äs a theatre of the worid guided by scientific principles, but äs a reflection of power and rule, her personal mastery of the world. Imperial iconography was äs significant for the Avis family äs it was for the Habsburgs—Austrian and Spanish. SUGGESTED READING Samuel Quiccheberg Elisabeth Scheicher,'Die Rolle der Theoretiker im Sammlungswesen des 16. Jahrhunderts', in Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Habsburger (Vienna, 1979), 68-71. P. Falguieres, 'Fondation du theatre ou methode de l'exposition universelle: Les Inscriptions de Samuel Quicchelberg (1565)', Les Cahiers du Musee National d'Art Moderne,^ (1992): 91-115. E. Schulz, 'Notes on the History of Collecting and of Museums', Journal of the History of Collections, 2 (1990): 205-18. D.J.Jansen,'Samuel Quiccheberg's"Inscriptiones":De encyclopedische verzameling als hulpmiddel voor de wetenschap', in Verzamelen van Rariteitenkabinet tot Kunstmuseum (Heerlen, 1993), 57-92. Tlie Collection and Patronage of Catherine of Austria Annemarie Jordan,'Catherine of Austria and a Habsburg Relic for the Monastery of Valbemfeito, Obidos', Journal of the History of Collections, i (1990): 187-98. ,'A Crystal Elephant from the Kunstkammer of Catherine of Austria',Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 87 (1991): 121-6. ,'A Capela-Mor: Um panteäo real para a dinastia de Avis\Jeronimos: Quatro Seculos de Pwfura^exh. cat.; Lisbon, 1992), 70-90. -,'Catarina de Austria: Colecfäo e Kunstkammer de uma Princesa Renascentista', Oceanos, 16 (Dec. 1993): 62-70. [9] , 'The Development of Catherine of Austria's Collection in the Queen's THE K U N S T K A M M E R OF CATHERINE OF A U S T R I A Household: Its Character and Cost' (PhD dissertation,Brown University, 1994). , Retmto de Corte em Portugal: O Legado de Antonio Moro (1552—1572) (Lisbon, 1994),Metaphors ofPrincely Magnificence: Flemish Tapestries in Portuguese Royal Collections (forthcoming). Portuguese Royal Collections Susan Davidson, African Ivories from Portuguese Domains: Symbols of Imperial Rule in European Courts, 1462-1650 (Master's thesis, George Washington University, 1985). Annemarie Jordan, Portuguese Royal Collections, (1505-1580): A Bibliographie and Documentary Survey (Master's thesis, George Washington University, 1985). Habsburg Collections and Patronage • Alphons Lhotsky, Die Geschichte der Sammlungen, I: Von den Anfängen bis zum Tode Kaiser Karls VI. 1740 (Vienna, 1941-5). H. Trevor-Roper, Princes and Artists: Patronage and ideology at four Habsburg courts, 1517-1633 (NewYork, 1974). FrancesYates, Astrea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century (London, 1975). T. DaCosta Kaufmann,'Remarks on the Collections of Rudolf II: The Kunstkammer äs a form of Representatio', Art Journal, 37 (1978): 22—8. S. Alfons/The Museum äs Image of the World', in The Archimboldo Effect: Transformations ofthe Facefrom the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (Milan, 1979), 67-85. M. Morän and F. Checa, El Coleccionismo en Espana: De la cämara de maravillas a la galeria depinturas (Madrid, 1985). T. DaCosta Kaufmann, The School of Prague: Painting at the Court of Rudolf II (Chicago, 1988). Die Kunst am Hofe Rudolfs II. (Hanau, 1988). Prag um 1600: Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II. (Freren, 1988). Prag um 1600: Beiträge zur Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II. (Freren, 1988). Fernando Checa, Felipe II: Mecenas de las Artes (Madrid, 1992). Maria van Hongarye: Koningin tussen keizers en kunstenaars, 1505-1558 (Utrecht, 1993). Sabine Tischer, Tizian und Maria von Ungarn: Der Zyklus der 'pene infernali' auf Schloss Einehe (1549) (Berne, 1994). D. Eichberger and L. Beaven, 'Family Members and Political Allies: The Portrait Collection of Margaret of Austria,' Art Bulletin (June 1995), 225-48.