Abstract
"Kunstkammer" or "wunderkammer" are German words and meant respectively "marvels room" and "art room". These words became famous thanks too Julius Von Schlosser who published in 1908 a work on the art titled Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance. These words mean in particular the artistic collection gathered by the prince of Northern Europe at the end of the 16th century mostly The Halsbourg). These collections were encyclopedic collections. They contained many different type of object as different as natural or geological object, religious piece, works of art or antiquities. Every marvel and curiosity was put in it, either the object made by Nature or by the Art. The Italian writter, Francesco Fiorani noticed that "The Kunstkammer was regarded as a microcosm or theater of the world, and a memory theater. The Kunstkammer conveyed symbolically the patron's control of the world through its indoor, microscopic reproduction."
The wunderkammer (Kunstkammer) was used by princes of Northern Europe in order to promote their own power. The wunderkammer displayed family paintings representing 'great men', gilded treasures, monsters and scientific objects and only few privileged people could see this kind of astonishing collection. All these collections were done in order to show the magnificence, the great genealogy and the wealth of the ruler. When he discovered the collection of Charles 1st, Peter Thomas, a scholar of the 18th, stated that " The kunstkabinett itself was a form of propaganda".
Rudolph II is a good example of this, because he tried to establish his authority by controlling all collectors of his days. His chateau of Hradcany in Prague displayed a splendid collection but also a zoo and others odd curiosities. Rudolf's uncle, Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria also had a collection, with a special emphasis on portrait with interesting deformities, which remains largely intact as the Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Ambras Castle in Austria.
