Enfilade

Now on view at the Musée du Luxembourg:

Mirror of the World: Masterpieces from the Dresden Cabinet of Curiosities
Miroir du monde: Chefs-d’œuvre du Cabinet d’art de Dresde
Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 14 September 2022 — 15 January 2023

Curated by Claudia Brink

The exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg brings together around one hundred remarkable artworks and objects collected between the 16th and 18th centuries by the powerful Prince-electors of Saxony. During a period marked by the struggle for imperial power between the Electorates of the Holy Roman Empire and the courts of Europe, this dazzlingly rich collection demonstrates the political power of the Prince-elector. Featuring objets d’art, instruments and scientific books, natural materials and ethnographic objects, the Kunstkammer or ‘cabinet of curiosities’ was the first European collection to open to the general public, who viewed it as a place of knowledge and learning. This exhibition places an emphasis on the artistic quality and provenance of the works, which not only reflect the many global relationships and cultural exchanges, but also the Euro-centric world view they embody. A few historical objects are arranged so as to mirror works by contemporary artists, putting these historic collections into perspective through the key issues of our time.

The exhibition is curated by Claudia Brink, curator at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) / Dresden State Art Collections.

L’ E X P O S I T I O N

Introduction
1  Étudier le Monde, Images du Ciel et de la Terre
2  La Vogue des Cabinets Curiosités, Une Quête de la Rareté
3  L’Ivoire, Un Matériau d’Intérêt Mondial
4  Naturalia, l’Art, et la Nature
5  Visions du Monde, Formation de Stéréotypes
6  La Porcelaine, Symbole des Échanges entre l’Orient et l’Occident
7  L’Art de l’Empire Ottoman, Mode et Fêtes de Cour

The exhibition guide (in French) is available as a PDF file here»