VENICE.- The Musei Archeologici Nazionali di Venezia e della Laguna will unveil A Cabinet of Wonders: A Celebration of Art in Nature, an unprecedented exhibition showcasing the George Loudon Collection (United Kingdom), curated by Dr. Thierry Morel. Set within the opulent Palazzo Grimani — an exquisite testament to Tuscan-Roman Renaissance architecture in Venice—the exhibition also features a reconstruction of a 17th-century Wunderkammer. This installation forms a poetic dialogue between the Grimani family’s historic passion for collecting and George Loudon’s own contemporary vision.
Produced by the Ministry of Culture, the George Loudon Collection, and Venetian Heritage, the exhibition will grace the piano nobile of Palazzo Grimani from December 15, 2024, to May 11, 2025. Visitors will traverse the splendidly adorned rooms, including the Sala di Psiche, Camerino di Apollo, Camerino di Callisto, the Chapel and its vestibule, the dining room, and the Neoclassical room — each offering a feast for the senses.
On display is a mesmerizing selection from George Loudon’s collection of 19th-century life science artefacts, reimagined as a groundbreaking art installation. These objects are complemented in the first part of the exhibition by an array of treasures evocative of 17th-century collectors’ cabinets, including rare artefacts, natural curiosities, paintings, bronzes, antiquities and masterpieces of the decorative arts. Highlights of the exhibition include items from prestigious institutions such as Vienna’s MAK – Museum of Decorative Art, (Museum für Angewandte Kunst) as well as Venetian institutions such as the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. Further enriching this visual feast are exquisite furnishings and artworks drawn from distinguished private European collections, bridging epochs and perspectives.
Among the most glowing contributions are never-before-exhibited masterpieces by Venetian icons such as Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto joined by works by Sebastiano del Piombo, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Giambologna. Together, these treasures weave an intricate narrative, celebrating the enduring interplay between art, nature, and the timeless spirit of discovery.
THE CONCEPT
A Cabinet of Wonders pays tribute to the art of collecting, unfolding within the resplendent halls of Palazzo Grimani - a treasure in its own right. Once the home of Giovanni Grimani, a visionary patron whose celebrated collection of Greek and Roman statues has recently returned to the Palazzo after a 400-year absence, this setting is an unparalleled stage for such an exhibition—where the echoes of Renaissance grandeur meet contemporary curiosity.
“This exhibition emerges from a deep reflection on the nature of collecting and the historical and societal forces that have shaped and inspired it,” reflects Marianna Bressan, director of the Musei Archeologici Nazionali di Venezia e Laguna. “The legacy of the Grimani family’s collections—and particularly Giovanni Grimani’s taste—remains an enduring subject of fascination and scholarly inquiry. Through this dialogue with the George Loudon Collection, we seek to trace an imaginary thread between Renaissance and modern collecting, revealing shared passions and charting its evolution over centuries.
Here, Palazzo Grimani transcends its role as a mere backdrop. It becomes a living protagonist: a rarefied repository of the Grimani legacy and an enduring testament to their bold and visionary patronage.”
“Palazzo Grimani once housed one of Renaissance Venice’s most extraordinary collections, curated with boundless curiosity and a profound love of beauty by Giovanni Grimani and his ancestors,” observes Thierry Morel, curator of the exhibition. “This palace embodies the very essence of collecting: a passionate pursuit of knowledge, an admiration for the mysteries of the natural world, and a celebration of human ingenuity. With the George Loudon Collection showcased almost in its entirety for the first time, the exhibition serves as a bridge between past and present traditions of collecting.
Here, science and art converge, mirroring the philosophy of the 17th-century Wunderkammer, where nature’s secrets were explored through both artistic and scientific lenses. Art and science, after all, share a common purpose: the pursuit of beauty and understanding. According to Christian views of nature, beauty reflects divine perfection, as nature is God’s creation; in admiring it, we are drawn closer to the divine. By juxtaposing the Loudon Collection with masterpieces, artefacts, and treasures from other remarkable collections, this exhibition reveals how the act of collecting encapsulates our shared awe for art, science, and the splendour of the natural world.”
Thierry Morel concludes: “A Cabinet of Wonders reawakens the timeless enchantment of collecting, a practice born of the human desire to engage with the world’s diversity and unravel its mysteries. By intertwining artistic vision and scientific inquiry, the exhibition becomes a luminous testament to the boundless power of curiosity—an eternal force that enlightens, unites, and inspires.”
THE GEORGE LOUDON COLLECTION
The George Loudon Collection and the Wunderkammer offer us the means to explore and contrast the practice of collecting, focusing on the process, the pieces and the contexts, both historical and artistic.
George Loudon’s collecting journey began with contemporary art in the 1970s; over time, however, his growing interest in science led him to seek out beauty, wonder, and even magic in 19th-century life sciences illustrations and models. His collection focuses on objects originally crafted by skilled artisans for educational purposes, pieces that were later replaced by industrially produced versions and often relegated to storage. These models, many created for teaching life sciences, are now reappraised as objets d'art, emerging from the shadows of their original didactic context. Notable works in the collection, on show at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani, include the Leçons de choses series, crafted by M. Pitoiset for French primary schools, as well as rare Blaschka glass models, botanical specimens by Brendel, Japanese globes, and North Italian wax plant and fruit models. These pieces, often intricate and beautifully crafted, highlight the innovative techniques of the 19th century, such as wax casting, nature printing, and early photographic methods such as the cyanotype. In presenting these objects, the collection celebrates their craftsmanship and aesthetic, recognising their transformative power as both scientific tools and works of art. A Cabinet of Wonders aims to acknowledge the remarkable craftsmanship behind each item while celebrating their aesthetic and evocative powers. The exhibition reflects on the motivation, passion and often unexpected outcomes of collecting.
“My collection is really about the pleasure or the ‘wonderfulness’ of these objects and illustrations which, while originally created as facsimiles and specialist educational tools, were nevertheless precious in their own technical way. Now that they’ve lost that function, we can do with them whatever we like”, says George Loudon. “The way I went about collecting was very much a continuation of the way I was looking at contemporary art. It was only when I was arrested by the beauty of these objects that I started my search and my quest to build a collection. Each object has to present itself and it’s largely a visual story”.
The common thread linking the George Loudon Collection pieces presented in A Cabinet of Wonders is that each work – mushrooms, flowers, human body parts, sea creatures made in different materials – is an interpretation of nature. Craftsmen have acted like artists, inspired by natural elements, to create something of beauty. Although redundant as scientific tools, these high-quality hand-made replicas are still a testimony to our curiosity of the variety of the world that surrounds us, a symbol of our admiration for it, and the result of a synergy of hand and heart.
THE WUNDERKAMMER
In the 17th century, Wunderkammern, or cabinets of curiosities, were eclectic collections that brought together natural specimens, scientific instruments, precious artifacts, and works of art. These spaces were not only displays of wealth and knowledge but also an expression of the owner's intellectual curiosity and desire to classify and comprehend the world. The Renaissance Wunderkammer laid the groundwork for modern collecting practices, serving as a precursor to museums by creating a structured environment where objects were preserved, studied, and showcased. These early collections reflected an interdisciplinary approach, bridging science, art, and philosophy, and fostering the idea that knowledge could be derived from careful observation and assembly of the extraordinary.
The reconstruction of the Wunderkammer in A Cabinet of Wonders is curated by Thierry Morel in collaboration with Valeria Finocchi, art historian at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani, and serves as an introduction to the Loudon Collection displayed in the subsequent rooms. The Camerino di Callisto and the Camerino di Apollo were chosen as the setting for this reconstruction because they were likely the private studioli of Giovanni Grimani and may have originally housed such a collection by the Patriarch of Aquileia. Rather than being a strictly philological exercise, the reconstruction aims to immerse visitors in the atmosphere of Renaissance Venice, where collectors were true Humanists, deeply engaged in art, botany, craftsmanship, zoology, mineralogy, alchemy, and all realms of knowledge.
THE RENAISSANCE ARTWORKS ON DISPLAY
To immerse visitors in the world of a Renaissance collector and introduce the concept of collection explored in the rooms dedicated to the George Loudon Collection, A Cabinet of Wonders opens with the reconstruction of two distinct cabinets of curiosities. These spaces feature an array of extraordinary objects and natural wonders, alongside true masterpieces by some of the greatest Venetian and Italian Renaissance artists. Curator Thierry Morel, with the assistance of Palazzo Grimani’s art historian Valeria Finocchi, meticulously selected a series of rare art treasures from private collections and prestigious museums and institutions. Among the highlights is Mary Magdalen by Titian and his workshop (1556), displayed for the first time after a significant restoration that enhances its vibrant palette and subtle impastos. Dating from the same period, another previously unseen work, Christ in Glory by Paolo Veronese, a small devotional painting now in a private collection, reminds one of the artist’s famous Resurrection in San Francesco della Vigna in Venice. Two jewel-like early landscape paintings on copper by Jan Brueghel the Elder, testify to the taste for Northern schools in Venice in the period. One of them – painted during Brueghel’s Italian sojourn - comes from the prestigious Colonna collection in Rome. The Renaissance bronzes are also well-represented in the show with a particularly well-cast Mercury by Giambologna, and one of Della Porta’s absolute – and never before exhibited – masterpieces, a gilded Crucifix.
The ambition was to return these works to Venice, after their long peregrinations and exile, to evoke the spirit and passion of a Venetian patrician’s private apartments.
THE SET UP
The exhibition design plays a pivotal role in A Cabinet of Wonders, aiming to immerse visitors in a richly atmospheric journey through collecting. Curator Thierry Morel collaborated with acclaimed scenographer Flemming Fallesen to create unique and tailored settings for each room, showcasing pieces from the George Loudon Collection alongside loans from private collections and cultural institutions in the Wunderkammer section. The use of precious fabrics by Rubelli, a renowned Venetian establishment in luxury interior textiles, adds an additional layer of elegance and craftsmanship to the settings, bridging art and design.
The journey begins in the Sala di Psiche, designed as a Renaissance-style display with paintings, tapestries, sculptures, objets d’art and furniture, introducing visitors to an environment steeped in the period of the palazzo.
The Camerino di Callisto and Camerino di Apollo, believed to have been Giovanni Grimani’s private apartments, are transformed into cabinets of curiosity. The Camerino di Callisto evokes a Renaissance scholar’s study, as though the collector had just stepped out, while the Camerino di Apollo is adorned with prints by French artist Erik Desmazières, whose intricate work bridges past and present with influences from Piranesi, Callot, and Dürer, layered with surreal, science fiction-inspired touches. The prints, covering the room’s walls, incorporate objects mounted directly onto them, blurring the line between art and its setting.
Visitors then pass through the Sala del Doge, encountering a selection of Giovanni Grimani’s celebrated Greek and Roman sculptures, before embarking on the main journey through the George Loudon Collection. Fallesen and Morel carefully installed over 250 pieces, harmonising them with the palazzo’s opulent decor to create enveloping environments. The Grimani chapel and vestibule focus on human anatomy, the dining room celebrates botany, and the Neoclassical room is dedicated to creatures of the land and sea.
Throughout the exhibition, the dialogue between the objects and their meticulously crafted settings transcends time, inviting visitors to explore and share a world of wonders.
