Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and Other Treasures
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EN Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and other Treasures WES ANDERSON & JUMAN MALOUF THE EXHIBITION At the invitation of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the film- maker Wes Anderson and his partner, writer and illustrator Juman Malouf, have spent two years combing through the 1400 museum’s historical collections. More than 400 remarkable objects are presented, many of which come directly from the museum’s storage rooms and have never before been shown in public. Among them are Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, Old Master paintings, selections from the Kunstkammer and the Imperial Treasury, items from the Imperial Armoury, Coin Collection, and Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, as well as pieces from the Theatermuseum, the Weltmuseum, the Imperial Carriage Museum, and Schloss Ambras Innsbruck. A handful of special guests from the Natural History Museum have also found a place in the exhibition. The gathering and arrangement of these treasures – from the earliest, a necklace of ceramic beads strung together in Ancient Egypt, to the most recent, a wooden monkey carved in Indonesia almost 5,000 years later – suggest the spectacular breadth, depth, history, and complexity of the Kunsthistor- isches Museum’s collections. THE CURATORS Wes Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His films include The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel. His latest film, Isle of Dogs, came out in 2018. Juman Malouf was born in Beirut, Lebanon and grew up in London. She has designed and illustrated for theatre, film, and fashion in the US and Europe. Her first novel, The Trilogy of Two, was published in 2015. WES ANDERSON While Juman Malouf and I can take no credit for the conception and creation of any of the works of art included in this exhibition, we do harbor the humble aspiration that the unconventional groupings and arrangement of the works on display may influence the study of art and antiquity in minor, even trivial, but nevertheless detectable ways for many future generations to come. Some of the links are more immediately apparent than others. We situate the seventeenth century emerald vessel in a confined space opposite the bright green costume from a 1978 production of Hedda Gabler in order to call attention to the molecular similarities between hexagonal crystal and Shantung silk; we place the painting of a seven-year-old falconer (Emperor Charles V) next to the portrait of a four-year-old dog owner (Emperor Ferdinand II) in order to emphasize the evolution of natural gesso; a box for the storage of Spanish powdered wigs goes next to a case for the storage of the crown of the king of Italy because both were so clearly shaped and formed by the introduction of the hinge. The list goes on. True: one of the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s most senior curators (educated, of course, at the University of Heidelberg) at first failed to detect some of the, we thought, more blatant connections; and, even after we pointed most of them out, still questions their curatorial validity in, arguably, all instances. But, should our experiment fail on these levels, we are, never- theless, confident it will, at the very least, serve the purpose of ruling out certain hypotheses, thereby advancing the methods of art history through the scientific process of trial-and- error. (In this case, mostly error.) Our hope, however, is we will shed some light into corners that had previously been too dim for comfortable viewing. FLOOR PLAN OF THE EXHIBITION ROOM 3 ROOM 5 ROOM 7 ROOM 1 ROOM 8 ROOM 4 ROOM 2 ROOM 6 ROOM 3 ROOM 5 ROOM 7 ROOM 1 ROOM 8 ROOM 4 ROOM 2 ROOM 6 For reasons of conservation, there may be the occasional small difference between the placement of objects indicated in this booklet and their actual placement in the exhibition. 1 2 3 4 7 8 ROOM 1 1408 1 Cabinet of Curiosities Frans II. Francken, c.1620/25 Oak panel Picture Gallery, inv. no. 1048 2 Hirsute Man, Petrus Gonsalvus German, c.1580 Canvas Picture Gallery, inv. no. 8329 3 Madeleine Gonsalvus, Daughter of the Hirsute Man Petrus Gonsalvus German, c.1580 Canvas Picture Gallery, inv. no. 8331 5 6 4 Son of the Hirsute Man Petrus Gonsalvus German, c.1580 Canvas Picture Gallery, inv. no. 8332 5 Woman at a Window Jacobus Vrel, dated 1654 Oak panel Picture Gallery, inv. no. 6081 6 Man Looking through a Window Samuel van Hoogstraten, dated 1653 Canvas Picture Gallery, inv. no. 378 7 An Imperial Banquet at the Court of Emperor Leopold I Attributed to Jan Thomas, 1666 Canvas Picture Gallery, inv. no. 7660 8 Nocturnal Banquet Wolfgang Heimbach, dated 1640 Copper Picture Gallery, inv. no. 599 ROOM 2 1404 13 17 Threaded Disc Pearls Goblet and Cover Ancient Egyptian, c.3000 BC Court Glass Workshop Innsbruck, Faience c.1570/90 9 Egyptian and Near-Eastern Col- Glass, gold painted Bugle lection, inv. no. ÄS 6909 Kunstkammer, inv. no. KK 3313 Austria, 20th cent. Brass, bronze, green fabric tape 14 18–52 Court Wardrobe, inv. no. N 455 Tree Frog (Hyla arborea) Malachites Alcohol-preserved specimen, mu- Natural History Museum Vienna 10 seum glass jar with wax-sealed lid, Vase pig’s bladder and frog in whole, 53 China, Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) mounted on glass sheet Can and Cover Porcelain, glazing Natural History Museum Vienna, Southern German(?), 17th cent., Weltmuseum Wien, inv. no. 64612 inv. no. 34100/1 1st half Nephrite, silver, gilded, enamel 11 15 Kunstkammer, inv. no. KK 2032 Vase Necked Bowl Lute China, Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) Java, Indonesia, before 1893 54 Porcelain, glazing Wood, painted, metal Bowl with Handles Weltmuseum Wien, inv. no. 64613 Weltmuseum Wien, inv. no. 106105_ab Southern German(?), 17th cent. Chrysoprase, silver, gilded 12 16 Kunstkammer, inv. no. KK 2001 Green Beetle (Chrysina macropus) Cigarette Case of the Natural History Museum Vienna, Rennverein Club no inv. no. Vienna, 1932 Metal, lacquer Court Wardrobe, inv. no. N 452 17 9 18–52 17 53 54 55 56 10 11 68 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 12 13 43 66 14 15 16 65 67 55 58 61 Asymmetric Bowl Ushebti Venus and Amor Ottavio Miseroni, Jan Vermeyen Ancient Egyptian, 305–31 BC Roman, 2nd cent. AD (mounts) Faience with light-green glazing Bronze, hollow cast Prague, c.1603/07 Egyptian and Near-Eastern Col- Collection of Greek and Roman Nephrite, gold, enamel lection, inv. no. ÄS 3992 Antiquities, inv. no. VI 333 Kunstkammer, inv. no. KK 6846 59 62 56 Bust of Serapis Hermes Seated Shell-shaped bowl with Neptune Roman, 3rd cent. AD, 1st half Roman, after Greek model from Ottavio Miseroni, Master HC Bronze, hollow cast, thin and 4th cent. BC (mounts) with holes Bronze, hollow cast, eyes inset Prague, c.1620, Vienna, c.1620/30 Collection of Greek and Roman in silver (mounts) Antiquities, inv. no. VI 376 Collection of Greek and Roman Heliotrope, silver, gilded Antiquities, inv. no. VI 420 Kunstkammer, inv. no. KK 2013 60 Jupiter with bundle of lightning 63 57 bolts and scepter (now missing); Ushebti of Her bastet Head-Shaped Vessel next to him a tree stump Ancient Egyptian, c.300–200 BC Roman, 2nd cent. AD (puteal?), on the base a column Faience with light-green glazing Bronze, hollow cast and two Lares Egyptian and Near-Eastern Col- Collection of Greek and Roman Roman, 2nd cent. AD, 2nd half lection, inv. no. ÄS 10221 Antiquities, inv. no. VI 4616 Bronze, hollow cast Collection of Greek and Roman 64 Antiquities, inv. no. VI 409 Harpocrates Roman, 1st–3rd cent. AD Bronze Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, inv. no. VI 3001 71 69 70 85 86 72a, b, c 74 73 75 77 76 78 87 79 80 81 82 83 84 88 89 90 91 92 96 93 94 95 97 65 70 74 Malachite Kagura Mask Mask Russia Japan, before 1872 Teotihuacan, Mexico, AD Natural History Museum Vienna, Wood, lacquer, hair c.200–650 inv. no. Ad599 Weltmuseum Wien, inv. no. 34642 Calcite Weltmuseum Wien, inv. no. 14685 66 71 Malachite mere pounamu 75 Russia Maori, Aotearoa, New Zealand, African Ostrich Natural History Museum Vienna, c.1880 German(?), c.1610(?) inv. no. K8295 New Zealand greenstone Insect wings (nephrite), plant fiber cord Schloss Ambras Innsbruck, 67 Weltmuseum Wien, inv. no. 14180 inv. no. PA 443 Malachite USA 72a, b, c 76 Natural History Museum Vienna, Negau Helmets Playing Card from the “Hof- inv. no. O572 Slovenia (type Vače), ämterspiel” (Court-office Game) 5th cent., 2nd half – early 4th cent. BC Vienna(?), c.1455 68 Bronze, cast and beaten Paper, woodcut, watercolours, Emerald vessel Antikensammlung, inv. nos. VI 1664, gold and silver leafing, pen drawing Dionysio Miseroni, 1641 VI 1666, VI 1665 Kunstkammer, inv. no. KK 5081 Emerald, gold, enamel This object will be replaced by the Kunstkammer, inv. no. KK 2048 73 card with inv. no. KK 5103 during Helmeted Guinea Fowl the course of the exhibition due to 69 German(?), c.1610(?) conservational reasons. Five Male Red-necked Tanagers Insect wings (Tangara c. cyanocephala) Schloss Ambras Innsbruck, 77 Brasilien inv. no. PA 442 Actor’s Mask, Woman Natural History Museum Vienna, Surakarta, Java, Indonesia, before inv. nos. 68.527, 68.464, 68.465, 1906 68.503, 68.520 Wood, painted Weltmuseum Wien, inv. no. 74211 78 85 93 Playing Card from the “Hof- Feather Skirt Archduchess Maria Christierna in ämterspiel” (Court-office Game) Peru, Amahuaca, about 1870 a green dress, knee-length portrait Vienna(?), c.1455 Bird feathers Austrian, c.1592 Paper, woodcut, watercolours, Weltmuseum Wien, inv. no. 15105_b Canvas gold and silver leafing, pen drawing Picture Gallery, inv.