Hot on the heels of the Venice Biennale, the exhibition at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani pairs objects and images from 19th-century biosciences from the George Loudon Collection in England with art and artifacts on loan from international museums, cultural institutions and private collectors and works. from the Palazzo Grimani collection. “The Cabinet of Wonders: A Celebration of Art in Nature” recreates the 17th-century Wunderkammer, better known as the cabinet of wonders, perhaps filled with miniature crocodiles, bottled herbs, archaeological finds and pressed flowers, which became popular in the 16th century. In Europe. But despite the name of the exhibit that is slightly designed, the palazzo exhibition of the headquarters is filled with several rooms, including its chapel, dining room, Neoclassical room and more.
Small corners and tables scattered throughout the museum display well-arranged analog reading materials. In one small room, anatomical sculptures, such as bones, hearts and skulls, are mounted on the walls. Moving on, paintings and other artefacts hang from floor to ceiling alongside a variety of objects such as seashells, vases and hats.
Loudon is the author of Object Studies: Observations in Nineteenth-Century Life Sciences and an expert collector of 19th-century scientific artifacts, many of which he acquired during his travels. For more than two decades, he collected not only modern art but also medical illustrations and scientific models, and works by Charles Darwin, naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and zoologist Ernst Haeckel.
He began collecting life science artifacts in earnest in 2004 when he discovered Harvard University's “Glass Models”, also known as the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, the university's collection of artificial flowers commissioned in 1886 by Professor George Lincoln Goodale, Harvard's first dean Botanical Museum). Models were produced from 1887 to 1936 by artists such as Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, father and son glass artists who lived and worked in Germany.
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So the interest grew, and Loudon sought to find other such interests hidden in plain sight. He has visited more than fifty different universities and museum archives around the world to uncover rare and hidden treasures handcrafted by unknown artisans whose work represents the intersection of science, art and education in the 19th century.
The visuals of “Cabinet of Wonders” are there Choice options (object studies) created by M. Pitoiset of French primary schools and a select number of Blaschka botanical glass models, as well as Japanese globes and Italian wax plant and fruit models. These intricately designed pieces are examples of innovations that emerged in the 19th century, such as nature printing and early photographic techniques such as the cyanotype.
Of course, there is Italian art on display, too. Highlights include a painting by Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto, Adam and Eve before God from the 16th century and a portrait of the archbishop Giovanni Grimani by the same artist from the early 17th century. There are never-before-exhibited works by Venetian masters such as Titian and Veronese. Nearby are anatomical figures of men from the 19th century—artifacts of the time, certainly, but also art.
Here, Loudon's amazing collection is presented as an art installation for the first time. “George Loudon's insatiable curiosity about the natural world and science soon led him to discover the beauty and magic within the objects and images of 19th-century life science,” writes shepherd Thierry Morel. “In this scenographic odyssey, artefacts emerge from shadowy origins, discarding the mundane to reveal themselves as beautiful works of art, resplendent with unexpected poetry.”
Loudon is one of the few art collectors who specializes in 19th century life science figures and models. When industrially produced versions eventually replaced these, the handmade originals were often left to gather dust in a museum vault unless they found their way into pop culture. But these paintings and models are objets d'art and a celebration of art that has been lost—and proof that collecting art doesn't always mean collecting paintings.
“Cabinet of Wonders: A Celebration of Art in Nature” is at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani until May 11, 2025.
