Kunstkamera: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

 

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[[File:Saint Petersburg Kunstkamera from Neva.jpg|thumb|View of the Kunstkamera across the Neva]]

[[File:Saint Petersburg Kunstkamera from Neva.jpg|thumb|View of the Kunstkamera across the Neva]]

The ”’Kunstkamera”’ ({{lang-ru|Кунсткамера}}) or ”’Kunstkammer”’ ([[German language|German]] for “Culture Room” (literally) or “Art Chamber”, typically used for a “[[cabinet of curiosities]]”) is a [[public museum]] located on the [[Universitetskaya Embankment]] in [[Saint Petersburg]], facing the [[Winter Palace]]. Its collection was first opened to the public at the [[Summer Palace]] by [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] in 1714, making it Russia’s first museum. Enlarged by purchases from the [[United Provinces of the Netherlands|Dutch]] collectors [[Albertus Seba]] and [[Frederik Ruysch]], the museum was moved to its present location in 1727. Having expanded to nearly 2,000,000 items, it is formally organized as the [[Russian Academy of Science]]’s ”’Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography”’ ({{lang-ru|Музей антропологии и этнографии имени Петра Великого Российской академии наук}}, ”Muzey antropologii i etnografii imeni Petra Velikogo Rossiyskoy akademii nauk”), abbreviated in Russian as the ”'{{lang|ru|МАЭ}}”’ or ”'{{lang|ru|МАЭ РАН}}”’.

The ”’Kunstkamera”’ ({{lang-ru|Кунсткамера}}) or ”’Kunstkammer”’ ([[German language|German]] for “Culture Room” (literally) or “Art Chamber”, typically used for a “[[cabinet of curiosities]]”) is a public museum located on the [[Universitetskaya Embankment]] in [[Saint Petersburg]], facing the [[Winter Palace]]. Its collection was first opened to the public at the [[Summer Palace]] by [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] in 1714, making it Russia’s first museum. Enlarged by purchases from the [[United Provinces of the Netherlands|Dutch]] collectors [[Albertus Seba]] and [[Frederik Ruysch]], the museum was moved to its present location in 1727. Having expanded to nearly 2,000,000 items, it is formally organized as the [[Russian Academy of Science]]’s ”’Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography”’ ({{lang-ru|Музей антропологии и этнографии имени Петра Великого Российской академии наук}}, ”Muzey antropologii i etnografii imeni Petra Velikogo Rossiyskoy akademii nauk”), abbreviated in Russian as the ”'{{lang|ru|МАЭ}}”’ or ”'{{lang|ru|МАЭ РАН}}”’.

==History==

==History==

[[File:1741-Kunstkamera.jpg|thumb|left|Kunstkamera in 1740]]

[[File:1741-Kunstkamera.jpg|thumb|left|Kunstkamera in 1740]]

As part of [[Peter the Great]]’s establishment of [[St Petersburg]] as the new [[Russian Empire|Russian]] capital, he established an imperial [[cabinet of curiosities]] dedicated to preserving “natural and human curiosities and rarities” in the manner of some of the other European courts since the 16th century. Such cabinets allowed rulers and the elite to acquire a fuller knowledge of the world and to demonstrate their control over it. Peter’s personal collection was first exhibited to the public at the [[Summer Palace of Peter the Great|Summer Palace]] in 1714, which is used by the present museum as its founding date. Peter’s main interest was in natural things ({{lang|la|[[naturalia]]}}) rather than manmade ones ({{lang|la|[[artificialia]]}}). A major component of the original collection was a large assortment of human and animal [[fetus]]es with various [[birth defect]]s, many of which Peter had acquired in 1697 from [[Frederick Ruysch]] and [[Levinus Vincent]]. Peter encouraged research into [[deformities]], particularly in order to debunk [[superstition|superstitious]] fear of [[monster]]s. In particular, he issued a [[ukase]] ordering malformed stillborn infants to be sent from anywhere in Russia to the imperial collection. He subsequently had them put on show in the Kunstkamera as examples of accidents of nature.Driessen-Van het Reve, J.J. (2006) De Kunstkamera van Peter de Grote. De Hollandse inbreng, gereconstrueerd uit brieven van Albert Seba en Johann Daniel Schumacher uit de jaren 1711–1752. English summary, pp. 335–336. In 1716, he established a [[mineral]] cabinet for the Kunstkamera from a collection of 1195 samples which he had bought from the [[Gdańsk|Danzig]] doctor Gottwald. He then expanded it with other curious or representative minerals from around Russia. (This collection was later separated to create what became the [[Fersman Mineralogical Museum]], now in [[Moscow]].)

As part of [[Peter the Great]]’s establishment of [[St Petersburg]] as the new [[Russian Empire|Russian]] capital, he established an imperial [[cabinet of curiosities]] dedicated to preserving “natural and human…