At the Yale Center for British Art, treasures from a lost 17th-century wunderkammer are reunited with a painting of its wonders.
Unknown artist (Dutch School), “The Paston Treasure” (1663), oil on canvas, Norwich Castle Museum & Gallery, Norwich, UK (courtesy Norfolk Museums Service)
In 1638, William Paston set out from his country house to see the world outside England. He’d recently lost his wife, Katherine, who’d died in childbirth, and he was seeking distraction. His travels began on the European continent, and like any tourist, he picked up souvenirs.
In Florence, he commissioned a pietre dure table, made with a secretive technique involving a wheel-driven machine that shaped semiprecious stones for inlaid mosaics. While most Englishmen ended their Grand Tour in Italy, he journeyed on to Egypt, stopping in Cairo where he rubbed elbows with John Greaves who was there to survey the pyramids, and likely picked up a couple of stuffed crocodiles to hang over his new table. Then he pushed on to Jerusalem, before circling back through Turkey and Greece to Italy again. As one of his last stops, he picked up some Murano glass in Venice.
Unknown artist (English), pair of Flagons (1598), silver gilt, cast, chased, engraved, and pricked (Untermyer Collection, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
By the time he returned to England, he had amassed a collection that made clear both his family’s wealth and his newfound ambition for worldliness. In 1639, his cousin Thomas Knyvett declared his collection a “world full of curiosityes.” Although his financial security took a series of blows — in part due to his son’s extravagant spending and the sequestering of his estates during the English Civil War — he continued to collect what he believed to be exotic. A 1683 inventory of Oxnead Hall’s “best closet”— or his cabinet of curiosities — included a litany of hundreds of naturalia (natural objects), artificialia (human-made objects), and scientifica (objects of science). It was a private museum, viewable by his lucky visitors. An epigram composed by Thomas Pecke to William declared: “Your Recreation, is to feed your Eyes, / With the most select Things, the Globe comprize.” Pecke went on to state that if Paston wanted to see “Englands choicest Rarity,” he should look in a mirror. In other words, by presenting the most wondrous objects in his home as an expression of global knowledge, and by traveling the world to obtain them, he was elevated in his country’s esteem. It was not hubris to attempt to contain the whole globe in one room, it was a quest to be praised.
The collection was short-lived. Two generations of Pastons later, it was dispersed and sold. Aside from the Pastons’ letters, which were saved by some antiquaries in the mid-18th century, the main record of the collection is a colossal painting called “The Paston Treasure.” The 8-foot by 5.4-foot canvas is a representation of a collection, with depictions of specific objects, but it also has generic imagery. Dutch still life tropes — cooked lobster, piles of ripe fruit, a globe, a lute, a trumpet, a parrot — mingle with 13 objects from the Paston collection: flasks adorned with tortoise shell and mother-of-pearl, a silver-gilt flagon, cups made from conch and strombus snail shells, a silver tankard, and vessels formed from nautilus shells.
Installation view of The Paston Treasure: Microcosm of the Known World (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
The artist of “The Paston
Treasure” is thought to be a Dutch itinerant painter. The only other known work attributed to the same artist is an oil on canvas painting from the 1660s that features the exact same African grey parrot that appears in “The Paston Treasure.” Like most still-life artists, he likely recycled imagery in his commissions. It’s unclear, also, whether the artist was commissioned by the traveling Sir William Paston, or by his oldest son, Robert. Robert likely oversaw its completion following his father’s death in 1663, which could explain changes that were made when the painting was almost finished. A recent X-ray analysis revealed a silver platter that was replaced by a woman, who was later covered with a looming black diamond-shaped timepiece. After William’s death, his will dictated that his possessions be divided between Margaret and Robert, leading to some tension over who would get what (perhaps including the silver platter). It’s possible that the woman was Margaret, or an allegorical figure to replace the silver platter. However, it could also be that the clock was chosen as a symbol of the passage of time, and that the painting memorialized the death of William.
Yale Center for British Art inaonyesha kumbukumbu ya ajabu ya Wonderkammer ya karne ya 17 iliyopotea na picha ya ajabu ya Wonderkammer. "Mchoro wa ""The Paston Treasure"" (1663): Mafuta juu ya canvas, Norwich Castle Museum & Gallery, Norwich, Uingereza (Kwa heshima ya Norfolk Makumbusho Huduma) ""Katika 1638 William Paston aliondoka nyumbani kwake nchi kuona dunia nje ya Uingereza." Hivi majuzi alikuwa amepoteza mke wake, Katherine, ambaye alikuwa amekufa wakati wa kujifungua, naye alikuwa akitafuta jambo la kumkengeusha fikira. Safari zake zilianza katika bara la Ulaya, na kama mtalii yeyote, alichukua zawadi. Katika Florence, aliagiza meza ya pietre dure, iliyotengenezwa kwa mbinu ya siri iliyohusisha mashine inayoendeshwa kwa magurudumu ambayo ilifanyiza mawe ya thamani kwa ajili ya michoro iliyochongwa. Wakati Waingereza wengi walimaliza ziara yao kubwa nchini Italia, yeye alisafiri kwenda Misri, akisimama Cairo ambapo alishirikiana na John Greaves ambaye alikuwa huko kuchunguza piramidi, na labda alichukua crocodiles mbili zilizofungwa ili kuzunguka meza yake mpya. Kisha akaendelea kuelekea Yerusalemu, kabla ya kurudi kupitia Uturuki na Ugiriki hadi Italia tena. Kama moja ya vituo vyake vya mwisho, alichukua baadhi ya kioo Murano katika Venice. "Mchoraji asiyejulikana (Mwingereza), jozi ya Flagons (1598), fedha ya dhahabu, iliyopigwa, iliyofukuzwa, kuchongwa, na kuchomwa (Mkusanyiko wa Undermyer, heshima ya Jumba la Makumbusho la Sanaa la Metropolitan, New York) Kufikia wakati aliporudi Uingereza, alikuwa amekusanya mkusanyiko ambao ulionyesha utajiri wa familia yake na tamaa yake mpya ya ulimwengu.""" "Mwaka 1639 binamu yake Thomas Knyvette alitangaza mkusanyiko wake kuwa ""ulimwengu uliojaa vitu vya ajabu"" na ingawa usalama wake wa kifedha ulipata mapigo kadhaa, kwa sehemu kwa sababu ya matumizi ya mwanawe ya kupita kiasi na kukamatwa kwa mali zake wakati wa Vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe vya Uingereza, aliendelea kukusanya kile alichokiona kuwa cha ajabu." Katika orodha ya 1683 ya "kabati bora" ya Oxnead Hall au kabati lake la vitu vya kushangaza, kulikuwa na mamia ya vitu vya asili, vitu vya bandia, na vitu vya kisayansi. Ilikuwa jumba la makumbusho la kibinafsi, linaloweza kutazamwa na wageni wake wenye bahati. "Pecke aliendelea kusema kwamba kama Paston alitaka kuona ""England's choicest Rarity,"" anapaswa kuangalia katika kioo." Kwa maneno mengine, kwa kuwasilisha vitu vya ajabu zaidi nyumbani kwake kama usemi wa maarifa ya ulimwengu, na kwa kusafiri ulimwenguni kupata, aliinuliwa katika heshima ya nchi yake. Haikuwa kiburi kujaribu kuingiza ulimwengu mzima katika chumba kimoja, ilikuwa ni jitihada ya kupongezwa. Mkusanyiko huo haukudumu kwa muda mrefu. Mifumo miwili ya Pastons baadaye, ilitawanyika na kuuzwa. Mbali na barua za Paston, ambazo zilihifadhiwa na baadhi ya antiquaries katikati ya karne ya 18, rekodi kuu ya mkusanyiko ni mchoro mkubwa unaoitwa <unk>The Paston Treasure<unk>, mchoro wa 8 ft kwa 5.4 ft ni uwakilishi wa mkusanyiko, na picha za vitu maalum, lakini pia ina picha za jumla. "Hizi ni ""mchanganyiko wa vitu 13 kutoka mkusanyiko wa Paston: chupa zilizopambwa na ganda la kasa na mama wa lulu, chupa zilizotengenezwa kutoka kwa konokono na konokono za strombus, chupa za fedha, na vyombo vilivyotengenezwa kutoka kwa konokono za nautilus.""" Installation mtazamo wa The Paston Hazina: Microcosm ya Ulimwengu Unaojulikana (picha na mwandishi kwa Hyperallergic) Msanii wa <unk>The Paston Hazina<unk> ni walidhaniwa kuwa Uholanzi mtalii mchoraji. "Kama kazi nyingine inayojulikana inayohusishwa na msanii huyo ni ""Mafuta juu ya Canvas"" kutoka miaka ya 1660 ambayo ina papo hapo sawa ya Afrika ya kijivu ambayo inaonekana katika ""Hazina ya Paston"" kama wasanii wengi wa maisha bado, inawezekana alirudisha picha katika tume zake." Pia haijulikani wazi kama msanii huyo aliagizwa na Sir William Paston aliyesafiri, au na mwanawe mkubwa, Robert. Robert alikuwa na jukumu la kuongoza kazi ya kukamilisha mchoro huo baada ya kifo cha baba yake mwaka 1663, na hivyo kueleza mabadiliko yaliyofanywa wakati mchoro huo ulipokaribia kukamilika. Uchunguzi wa X-ray ulifunua sahani ya fedha iliyobadilishwa na mwanamke, ambaye baadaye alifunikwa na saa nyeusi yenye umbo la almasi. Baada ya kifo cha William, mapenzi yake yalitaka mali zake zigawanywe kati ya Margaret na Robert, na kusababisha mvutano juu ya nani angepata nini (labda ikiwa ni pamoja na sahani ya fedha). Inawezekana kwamba mwanamke huyo alikuwa Margaret, au mtu wa mfano ili kuchukua mahali pa sahani ya fedha. Hata hivyo, huenda pia saa hiyo ilichaguliwa kuwa ishara ya kupita kwa wakati, na kwamba mchoro huo ulikumbuka kifo cha William.