ABSTRACT
Wunderkammer translates as wonder chamber and is the German equivalent of a cabinet of curiosities. Originally, it described a collection concept from the late Renaissance and Baroque period implemented at the European royal courts and later in the houses of prosperous citizens. The collections consisted of a wide range of diverse natural history objects and artefacts: from stuffed armadillos, Chinese porcelain, exotic shells, cherry-stone miniatures, rare minerals and encyclopedias to alchemical literature and alleged unicorn horns. Presentation and content of the Wunderkammer depended on the collector’s individual preferences and, as Gabriele Bessler points out, ‘were not only disparate collections but visual reections and lyrical interpretations of an appropriation of the world’.1 The word Wunder (wonder) in Wunderkammer, does not refer to the notion of biblical miracles or supernatural wonders but to the idea that these collections were aimed at giving rise to amazement and wonder amongst spectators.
