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THE CROWNING GLORY a Material Analysis of the Top Decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet

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THE CROWNING GLORY a Material Analysis of the Top Decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet THE CROWNING GLORY A material analysis of the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet Teresia Strömgren Department of Culture and Aesthetics: Art History Spring 2020 ABSTRACT Department: Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Art History Address: 106 91 Stockholm University Tel: 08-16 20 00 Supervisor: Anna Bortolozzi Title and subtitle: The Crowning Glory - a material analysis of the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet Author: Teresia Strömgren Address: Uppsala Tel: Essay level: Master thesis Essay defended (semester): Spring 2020 The top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet has been investigated from a material perspective. Starting out from identifying the constituting materials, then analyzing their positions and correlations with each other and to further consider the contextual environment in terms of the materials accessibility and symbolic meaning in 16th and 17th Century Europe, representational manifestations have been observed. The obvious manifestations are: power, status and wealth all embodied in a symbiosis of natural and artificial, raw and crafted materials from the marine world and earth. The top decoration contrast to the corpus by its seemingly raw materials and asymmetric assemblage. On the other hand, the top decoration correlates to the corpus with: the natural materials, the fulfillment of the categories outlined by Quiccheberg of what a scholarly art cabinet ought to contain, and in the love narratives at display. The top decoration’s symbolic representation is the Birth of Venus myth. In elevating these natural materials into an art installation, their aesthetics and essence invited to a reflection of them as symbols and possible keys to a deeper knowledge of the universe in its contemporary princely European courts; constituting a microcosmos. Keywords: art cabinet, Augsburg, top decoration, materials, shells, corals, minerals, Venus, microcosmos 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 4 Aim and research questions ................................................................................................................. 4 Literature review ................................................................................................................................. 4 Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................................ 6 Method and material ............................................................................................................................ 7 Disposition .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Delimitations ....................................................................................................................................... 9 THE ART CABINETS OF AUGSBURG ............................................................................................. 10 The world trade during early 17th Century ....................................................................................... 10 Augsburg ....................................................................................................................................... 10 The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet .................................................................................................. 11 Philipp Hainhofer .............................................................................................................................. 12 Philipp Hainhofer’s collecting and inspiration ............................................................................. 12 The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet as a microcosmos ................................................................. 13 The designated buyer ......................................................................................................................... 15 MATERIAL ANALYSIS OF THE UPPSALA AUGSBURG ART CABINET .................................. 16 The wooden box ................................................................................................................................ 16 Marine life ......................................................................................................................................... 19 Corals ............................................................................................................................................ 19 Shells ............................................................................................................................................. 23 Minerals ............................................................................................................................................. 27 Seychelles nut .................................................................................................................................... 30 The Birth of Venus myth ................................................................................................................... 33 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 35 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................. 38 LIST OF IMAGES ................................................................................................................................ 40 APPENDIX 3 INTRODUCTION The top decoration of the Augsburg Art Cabinet in Uppsala with its assemblage of exotic materials crowns an art cabinet unique in our times, although a marvel already during the time of its making. Aim and research questions This thesis investigates the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet from 1625- 1631 conceived by the German cabinet maker Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647). The top decoration is not the immediate eye-catcher for a viewer, as opposed to the central corpus; although, the top decoration both completes the cabinet and constitutes a contrast to it in terms of its form and materials. The objective is to understand how the top decoration correlates to the cabinet and whether the top decoration has a special function, and if so, what this function is. It is therefore important to identify which materials the top decoration consists of as they are the expression of what was on the market thanks to the new world being accessible through trade and travels. Once these materials are identified, an analysis of how these materials are positioned and displayed is feasible for the understanding of what is manifested with the entire top decoration. The material aspect is applicable in the investigation of which materials that are crafted, how they are processed and what that might imply. Any symbolic meaning of the materials represented, individually and as a whole, is likely to manifest Hainhofer’s artistic and professional intentions with his top decoration. This thesis contributes to the existing research of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet with a material perspective. The given opportunity of participating in the inventory made when the top decoration was dismounted from its glass case at display in Gustavianum, offered the privilege of a close study of the materials which made this thesis possible. Literature review How the art cabinets were produced, what they contained and their functions has been thoroughly studied by Hans-Olof Boström, professor in Art History at Karlstad University. In “Det underbara skåpet Philipp Hainhofer och Gustav II Adolfs konstskåp”, the Augsburg art cabinet in Uppsala from 1625-1631 by Philipp Hainhofer has been carefully analyzed. 1 1 Hans-Olof, Boström, Det underbara skåpet Philipp Hainhofer och Gustav den II Adolfs konstskåp, Uppsala, Stockholm, Elanders Gotab, 2001. 4 Boström explains the prerequisites that enabled the production of luxury objects. Boström further present the mannerist ideals of Philipp Hainhofer which according to Boström permeates the iconographic program of the cabinet. It is Boström’s contribution in regards to the possible iconographic programs that is of particular interest for present thesis. John Philip Böttinger and his “Hainhofer und Der Kunstschrank Gustav Adolfs in Upsala”, from 1909 emanated from his inventory of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet. 2 This literature is an important source concerning what the cabinet contains and the materials they are made of. Gerlinde Bach writes about Philipp Hainhofer’s background and his art cabinet making in Augsburg. 3 Although, the text mostly regards the art cabinet now in Vienna and whether it is identical with the Rudolph II art cabinet from 1631-1634 which has an unclear provenience. This research is interesting touching upon this thesis theme in what regards the iconographic program as the Vienna art cabinet has a mountain of shells and corals somewhat similar to the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet. From the material aspect, Gaius Secundus Pliny account in his “Natural History Books 36- 37”4, the categorisation and origin of minerals, and is as such a source on which some of the Middle Ages views on materials and their symbolic value is gathered from. Writings regarding categorisations of materials and their representational meaning as symbols are Marcia Pointon’s “Brilliant Effects a Cultural History of Gem Stones & Jewellery”5
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