Opposite the European Decorative Arts galleries on the ground floor of the Walters Art Museum's original building are galleries set in the mode of the Dutch Cabinet phenomenon, as well as, one dedicated to Medieval arms and armor. The Dutch Cabinet refers to one of the most fascinating chapters in Art History in my opinion. In the early seventeenth century, the Netherlands, having just defeated Spain after decades of war, was sitting pretty on the top of the heap in Europe. More commerce than anyone one else, a virtual lock on Indonesia and the spice trade, wealth pouring in, the largest middle class on the planet--and art flourished. In Italy, the Renaissance was the purview of the bourgeoisie, in the Netherlands, at this moment, it was also in the grasp of the middle classes, and so it found its expression in works writ small. Small paintings, and collections of exotica. Items celebrating the newly coined sciences and nature. Items celebrating the ingenuity of man and mechanization. It was during this period that Anton Leeuwenhoek devised the first microscope, after all. In most homes, these "Cabinets" were modest, to be sure. The design of these galleries is extravagant, lush, dizzying in the sheer quantity of specimens. In short, it's what my 8-year-old self would have called Heaven!
Vanitas Still Life, c. 1660's
Adam Bernaert (Dutch)
dates unknown
Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting the Collector Pierre Roose, 1621-23
Hieronymus Francken the Younger (Flemish)
1578 - 1623
and
Jan Brueghel the Elder (Flemish)
1568 - 1625
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