It began within the late Nineteen Nineties with a compendium of glass flowers. Dazzled by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka’s lifelike craftsmanship on the Harvard Museum of Pure Historical past, George Loudon switched his gathering efforts from up to date artwork to late Nineteenth- and early Twentieth-century scientific artefacts. In the present day, his ever-growing assortment numbers greater than 200 items, together with instructing fashions, anatomical specimens, taxidermy, books, prints and drawings. These objects, largely scientific however exquisitely made, are crafted from glass, wax, minerals, papier-mâché, material, ivory and extra.
A Cupboard of Wonders: a Celebration of Artwork in Nature on the Museo di Palazzo Grimani is probably the most complete presentation of the Loudon assortment so far. This exhibition is fittingly housed in a palace constructed within the Tuscan-Roman model that belonged to Giovanni Grimani, one of many metropolis’s foremost collectors. The palace is present process its personal renaissance as Grimani’s assortment of Greek and Roman antiquities, bequeathed to town of Venice following his dying in 1593, was returned in 2019 and reinstalled within the constructing.
With round 500 works, that is the primary main exhibition specializing in the theme of gathering because the return of the statues. This loaded historical past doesn’t daunt the exhibition curator, Thierry Morel, although. “It’s humbling to work in such a jewel field, however not intimidating,” he says. “I discover it inspiring.”
Within the first two rooms of the present, working parallel to the reveals of the Loudon assortment, will probably be a show of objects organized within the model of a Sixteenth or seventeenth century Venetian cupboard. This a part of the exhibition, co-curated with Valeria Finocchi, an artwork historian on the Palazzo Grimani, will embody not simply “curiosities” but additionally Venetian enamel and maiolica, work by the likes of Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese, alongside loans from worldwide establishments corresponding to Vienna’s MAK Museum of Utilized Arts.
A bunch of Nineteenth- and Twentieth century papier-mâché botanical fashions from George Loudon’s assortment Photograph: Rosamond Purcell
Morel explains that “Loudon’s decisions have a good time handcrafted objects—every created by hand to advertise and encourage data and appreciation of the world—but they’re lovely in their very own proper.” This consideration to the aesthetic qualities of expertise may be seen all through Venice, from the purposeful class of the gondola’s rowlocks (forcole) or within the conventional hard-lime pastelloni flooring, on which the viewers will probably be standing when visiting the present.
The that means of the objects within the Loudon assortment has modified over time, relying on time and context. The one-time didactic instruments, made out of date by industrial manufacturing, at the moment are re-evaluated by their inclusion in a devoted assortment. These pedagogical relics that have been as soon as comfortably at residence in a pure historical past museum turn into a part of a treasure trove in a white dice. With this exhibition, Morel is aiming for a symbiosis between the gathering and the ornate structure of the palace. His daring imaginative and prescient, in collaboration with the scenographer Flemming Fallesen, will present the gathering as a nature-inspired artwork set up devoid of glass obstacles, for an unmediated expertise with each bit.
Anchored by Grimani’s well-documented botanical pursuits—as exemplified by Camillo Mantovano’s verdant ceiling frescoes within the Sala a Fogliami—the show will draw connections between Loudon’s sensitivity and that of a Sixteenth-century humanist corresponding to Grimani; though separated by centuries, they have been each motivated by a profound love of nature.
“Should you see magnificence in nature, you respect it extra,” Morel says. “In my thoughts, the gathering of Giovanni is as up to date as George [Loudon]’s, pushed by an instinctual notion of what’s lovely, but additionally a pursuit of data. The present is a meditation on the artwork of understanding the world. It’s a quest that by no means ends.”
Very similar to Grimani, Loudon has made his residence an evolving stage for his assortment. The expertise of coming into a collector’s home world stays a uncommon privilege and Morel hopes to evoke this “magical intimacy the place you uncover a world you couldn’t think about.” He provides: “It’s an exploration, an mental and initiating journey, with connections that may spark between a Fifteenth-century silverwork and a hidden up to date piece.”
• A Cupboard of Wonders: a Celebration of Artwork in Nature, Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice, 15 December-11 Could 2025
