Becker, Marcus
The Berlin Kunstkammer: Collection History in Object Biographies from the 16th to the 21th Century
The Berlin Kunstkammer as such never existed. In the course of its long history, the electoral and then royal institution underwent continuous change. In dealing with the collection, the protagonists constantly reinvented the Brandenburg-Prussian Kunstkammer. This book takes an innovative approach to the multiple meanings of the history of the collection by examining the biographies of its objects. Like prisms, these holdings refract the history of the Kunstkammer from its beginnings around 1600 to the present day, showing the kaleidoscopic meanings attributed to artefacts and natural objects. The texts, written by authors from a variety of disciplines, trace the early history of Berlin’s modern museum landscape and the differing paths that brought objects into the collections. The contributions present the results of a joint research project by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
The book has also been published in German: https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1461
Die Berliner Kunstkammer: Sammlungsgeschichte in Objektbiografien vom 16. bis 21. Jahrhundert
The Berlin Kunstkammer as such never existed. In the course of its long history, the electoral and then royal institution underwent continuous change. In dealing with the collection, the protagonists constantly reinvented the Brandenburg-Prussian Kunstkammer. This book takes an innovative approach to the multiple meanings of the history of the collection by examining the biographies of its objects. Like prisms, these holdings refract the history of the Kunstkammer from its beginnings around 1600 to the present day, showing the kaleidoscopic meanings attributed to artefacts and natural objects. The texts, written by authors from a variety of disciplines, trace the early history of Berlin’s modern museum landscape and the differing paths that brought objects into the collections. The contributions present the results of a joint research project by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
The book has also been published in English: https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1383
Space Oddities: Die homerische Irrfahrt in Bildkünsten und Populärkultur 1800–2021 (Europa – USA – Südamerika)
The uncertain journey of the ἀνήρ (man), who initially remains nameless in the Odyssey, who fails and succeeds as Οὔτις (nobody), is experiencing a new boom as a timeless construct that can be adapted to different areas of today’s globalized world, characterized by mobility and migration movement.
This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the Odyssey’s reception in a wide variety of genres from different cultural contexts from Europe to North and South America and aims to encourage further interdisciplinary and transmedia research.
