According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kunstkammer (also known as cabinet of curiosities) “displayed an encyclopedic collection of all kinds of objects of dissimilar origin and diverse materials on a universal scale”. From the lecture, I gathered that such collections were mostly started by people of a royal and wealthy status, as we can see from Catherine of Austria and her cabinet of curiosities. The fact that intrigued me the most was the presence of female patrons of the arts in an age where by most women were discouraged from participating in any form of activities outside of her domestic duties.
One of such female patrons of the arts is Isabella d’Este, who had quite an ambitious appetite for her collections. When Isabella turned seventeen, she was married to Francescl Gonzoga. While her husband devoted his energies to military endeavors, she deployed culture and the arts as a way to expand the prestige of their small state. Isabella became one of the most energetic, knowledgeable, and committed of all Renaissance patrons.
Isabella was born into a wealthy family and was well educated. She was devoted to dance and music, but diverted her interest away from the classics and instead, invested in her passion for antiquities. During that period of time, women would only commission religious works, which made Isabella stood out even more with her collection of antiques. Up till her death bed, Isabella’s collection included over 1,500 items, which were mainly coins and medals, as well as 72 vessels and 40 engraved gems.
The photograph above shows the grotta and studiolo where Isabella kept her antiques at and decorated with, in Corte Vecchia. Before her husband’s death, Isabella used to keep her antiques in the grotta of her first home and have worked on decorating the space for twenty years. She would decorate her studiolo with paintings on classical and allegorical themes, that involved mythological subjects. This taste in the arts distinguishes her even more from the typical female patron of that time period.
http://italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-8/essays/isabella-deste-collects/
