Upon first encountering the Walters Art Museum’s Chamber of Wonders, it is as if a bomb exploded . . . but in a good way.
Covering seemingly every nook, cranny, shelf and cabinet inside the medium-sized room are objects from nature that would have been part of a European kunstkammer of the 16th or 17th century.
To the untrained eye, the scene is quite overwhelming. Everything from mammal skulls and Mayan statues to animal skins and heads adorns every surface, just waiting to be noticed and soaked up by the first viewer. The Chamber of Wonders is certainly a room meant for flamboyant display and admiration, just like the Kunstkammer.
Why, exactly, were these objects so appealing to collectors of the era? Why were they chosen, in particular, for antiquities collectors to show off to their friends, and why did the Walters choose to include them in its modern exhibit? Put simply, the answer lies in wonder and what collectors considered “valuable” at the time.
Since collectors at the time were only fascinated by the raw materials of ancient art and sought to lavishly and publicly display the exotic, rare and strangely beautiful, the objects in the Chamber of Wonders is true to the current understanding of Kunstkammer.
Certain sections of the Chamber of Wonders indicate that early collectors in Europe were concerned only with the raw materials of American objects, not necessarily the objects in their entirety. Two big, stately cabinets within in the Chamber come to mind. One is chock full of gemstones, precious metals, rare spondalus shells, ivory and extremely rare minerals. All that glitters in this cabinet is not only gold but also highly valuable, majestic-looking and expensive raw materials in their elemental state.
Many are unpolished and unrefined, mirroring the European fixation with the amazing, pure substances that make up American artwork observed during conquistador expeditions.
It is important to note that the interest in pure substances from the Americas with which to construct new artwork was not only based on admiration of sparkle and shine.
The Chamber of Wonders exhibit perfectly displays the practice of melting down or extracting American natural resources, constructing new works of arts and displaying the final products in a Kunstkammer as personal treaures.
Once viewers get over the initial shock and awe of the room’s grandiosity, they will come to see that each corner and crevice has a purpose, a message to be conveyed and an admiration to be shared. After exploring the collection that, to past collectors, represented a single region of the world, visitors will come away with a time-honored appreciation for the natural beauty of the Americas.
