Hans Panzer, Fortuna cabinet, Augsburg, ca 1620. Ebonised pearwood, oil on copper (paintings), fire-gilt copper, 76 x 82 x 43 cm (29.9 x 32.3 x 16.9 in.) © Kunstkammer Georg Laue

When the panel doors are opened, the drawer façade and the inside of the panel doors are decorated with miniature paintings on copper by Hans Panzer. Twelve drawers are arranged around a central compartment featuring a personification of Hope (Spes) with her traditional attribute, the anchor. The drawer fronts are decorated with scenes from the stories of ill-starred lovers known from the Greek and Latin mythology and the Bible. Related to those stories, the personifications of Good Fortune (Fortuna) and Misfortune (Infortunas) are represented on the panel doors to the left and right as two women holding the Wheel of Fortune in their hands. Below the larger picture fields inscriptions are engraved on copper to add a textual dimension to the iconographic programme informing this exceptional piece of furniture: it is about luck and lack of it in love affairs.

Giovanni Angelo Bezone or Saracchi workshop, Court jug, Milan, circa 1600. Rock crystal, gold, enamel. Height 13 cm (5.1 in.) © Kunstkammer Georg Laue

Literature: Georg Laue, Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer, Munich 2017, pp. 86-87 and 190-191, cat. no. 1.

Court tazza in a leather case. Glass: Ottoman, before 1630. Mount: Pierre Delabarre, Paris, ca 1630. Glass, gold, enamel; leather case with gold tooling. Length 20 cm © Kunstkammer Georg Laue

Provenance: Gustaf Celsing the Older (1679-1743), Swedish envoy to the Ottoman Empire

Literature: Georg Laue: Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer, Munich 2017, pp. 166-167, pp. 240-241, cat. no. 49.

Hardstone treasures mounted in gold and silver, Milan, Augsburg and Paris, 16th-17th centuries. Agate, chalcedony, jasper, fire-gilt silver and gold mount. Height 9 to 16 cm © Kunstkammer Georg Laue

Literature: Georg Laue: Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer, Munich 2017, pp. 140-147, pp. 170-171, cat. no. 35, 37-38, 50.

Willem van den Broecke, Allegory of Melancholy, Antwerp, circa 1560. Alabaster, 26.5 x 24 x 11 cm (10.4 x 9.4 x 4.3 in.). Inscription ‘QVO ME / FATA VOCANT’ [‘WHERE THE FATES SUMMON ME’] © Kunstkammer Georg Laue

The alabaster statuette derives from one of Michelangelo’s most famous works: the female personification of Night, which the famous sculptor carved for the tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici in San Lorenzo in Florence. Although it is not signed, the present sculpture can be definitely attributed to the Antwerp sculptor Willem van den Broecke, who is also known under the Latin name Guillelmus Paludanus. In respect of composition, formal language and iconography the work is closely related to signed works and sculptures by van den Broecke, which are in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, in the Kunstkammer at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan. Specialized on alabaster sculptures all’antica in small formats, Paludanus was one of the most famous sculptors working in Antwerp in the mid-16th century. His success is reflected in a distinguished international clientele that included ecclesiastical patrons such as Lübeck Cathedral, Spanish dignitaries such as the Duke of Alba, princes of Protestant territorial states such the Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, as well as patricians from Augsburg.

Goldsmith’s treasures from the Renaissance, Germany, 1570-1620. Fire-gilt silver, 10 x 40 cm (3.9 x 15.7 in.) © Kunstkammer Georg Laue

Literature: Georg Laue, Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer, Munich 2017, pp. 116-131 and 208-220, cat. nos. 19-29

Hardstone treasures mounted in gold and silver, Milan, Freiburg, Augsburg and Stuttgart, circa 1600. Rock crystal, lapis lazuli, agate, jasper, amber, fire-gilt silver and gold mount © Kunstkammer Georg Laue

Literature: Georg Laue: Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer, Munich 2017

The Kunstkammer Georg Laue presents at TEFAF New York Fall 2017 a collection of more than 30 magnificent court silver cups and exquisite hardstone vessels, all fitted with delicate mount of enamelled gold or fire-gilt silver. Hardstone artworks belonged to the most sought-after collectibles in the Renaissance and were found in all princely treasuries of that time, for instance, in the Green Vault in Dresden, the Imperial Treasury in Vienna and the Medici collections in Florence. Made of rock crystal, lapis lazuli, agate, jasper, and other rare precious stones, these exquisite vessels were fitted with gold or fire-gilt silver mount and embellished with engraved or enameled ornaments.

 “Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer“, volume XI in the Kunstkammer Georg Laue publication series, ISBN 978-3-00-055594-7 © Georg Laue

Accompanying the special exhibition on Schatzkammer artworks, the Kunstkammer will present at TEFAF New York Fall 2017 the new volume of its series of publication entitled “Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer“.

Georg Laue founded the Kunstkammer Georg Laue in 1997 in the immediate vicinity of the three Pinakotheks in Munich. In magnificently-appointed historic rooms, he displays museum-quality objects dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries that had originally been admired in Renaissance and Baroque art and curiosity cabinets (Kunst- and Wunderkammer): natural curiosities (Naturalia), non-European objects (Exotica), scientific instruments (Scientifica), marvels of nature (Mirabilia) and art objects (Artificialia). Here artworks made of a diverse range of materials are displayed in a lively, modern approach to exhibiting. Objects made of amber, coral, silver, shell, rock crystal, bronze, coconuts and glass recreate the atmosphere of the princely Kunstkammer. The Kunstkammer Georg is furthermore renowned for its academic publications devoted to the study of the European Kunst- and Wunderkammer.

Kunstkammer Georg Laue at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 6. 

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