Objects of Curiosity

In the 16th century, as Europeans started travelling the world, "Cabinets of Curiosities," (German: Kunstkammer) became all the rage: private collections of rare, exotic,and wondrous objects. The "cabinet" originally meant a room (or suite of rooms) . They mixed natural specimens (shells, corals fossils) with artworks, scientific instruments and other oddities (perhaps, letter openers) There is a painting at the Norton Museum of Art, (where I was a docent from 2018-2025,) by David Teniers the Younger, "The Interior of a Nobleman's Gallery" which depicts pefectly what a Kunstkammer is...