The lure of antiquity and the cult of the machine : the Kunstkammer and the evolution of nature, art, and technology / Horst Bredekamp ; translation from German by Allison Brown.

Main entry:

Bredekamp, Horst, 1947-

Title & Author:

The lure of antiquity and the cult of the machine : the Kunstkammer and the evolution of nature, art, and technology / Horst Bredekamp ; translation from German by Allison Brown.

Publication:

Description:

xiii, 140 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction / Anthony T. Grafton -- Sculpture and Machine -- Natural History Void of Time -- Natural Formations and Ancient Sculpture -- The Collector as Prometheus -- Quiccheberg's Theory -- The Habsburg Practice -- From Kepler to Locke -- Movement and Magic -- Laboratory -- Utopia -- Francis Bacon's Definition of the Kunstkammer -- Resting, Erring, and Constrained Nature -- Creation as a Game -- The Kunstkammer as a Playroom -- Utility -- Socialization -- The Villa Albani -- Winckelmann and Piranesi -- Foucault's Image in the Sand -- Turning's "tape"

Summary:

The Kunstkammer was a programmatic display of art and oddities amassed by wealthy Europeans during the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. These nascent museums reflected the ambitions of such thinkers as Descartes, Locke, and Kepler to unite the forces of nature with art and technology. The bizarre inventory of the Kunstkammer - ranging from minerals to exotic plants and animals, statues, and machines - was intended to illustrate the mechanistic order of the universe. Such collections confirmed a belief in the continual evolution of man's god-like power of creativity. Bredekamp advances a radical view that the baroque Kunstkammer is also the nucleus of modern cyberspace.

Resources:
Table of contents

ISBN:

1558760938 (hc ; acid-free paper)
9781558760936 (hc ; acid-free paper)
1558760946 (pb ; acid-free paper)
9781558760943 (pb ; acid-free paper)

Subject:

Art museums Europe History 17th century.
Art museums Europe History 18th century.
Art and technology Europe.
Art et technologie Europe.
Art and technology.
Art museums.
Kunstkabinetten.
Kunstgeschiedenis (wetenschap)
Museus de arte (história) Século 17; século 18 Europa.
Art and technology Europe History.
Europe.

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 121703
Call No.: ID N1010.B7; ID:96-B756
Status: Available

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