On a beautiful marble stand in the middle of the Introduction Room at the University of Toronto Art Centre sits that famous harbinger of chaos and calamity: Pandora’s Box.
Well, not the real Pandora’s box. But it sure looks like the one artists have painted for centuries. The box symbolizes the theme of the new Collecting Curiosities: The World in One Room exhibit, a collaborative effort between the U of T Art Centre and the university’s Museum Studies program.
Bringing together pieces from a variety of private and public donors, the exhibit features treasures (many never displayed publicly before) from 16th- and 17th-century European “cabinets of curiosities,” which provide the basis for most of today’s museums.
“Cabinets were a European phenomenon,” explains Museum Studies grad student Colin Hennigar, curator of the exhibit.
“[Collecting Curiosities] explores the initial attempts of Western society to deal with the extraordinary wonders it increasingly encountered,” adds Dr. Niamh O’Laoghaire, the Art Centre’s director.
No doubt this is the reason for the timeline in one room that charts European discoveries from the era. It helps “to contextualize curiosity in history,” as Hennigar puts it.
No context is needed to explain the The Hereford Map (1300). It is prominently displayed next to the World Map (1565), which looks very much like present-day maps. Side by side, the two illustrate how curiosity and exploration changed what we knew of the world in less than 300 years.
If maps and charts don’t whet your inquisitive appetite, perhaps the large narwhal tusk will. Measuring over three feet, it was thought to belong to a unicorn in an age where people who had never seen narwhals knew of unicorns through mythology.
Likewise the “griffon claws” are actually just bison horns arranged to look like claws.
Exhibit-goers will find not only beautiful objects but educational resources as well, including computers linked to unusual museums and a documentary featuring two U of T history professors.
One room centres on three collectors: the Tradescants (whose collection provided the basis for the Ashmolean museum in Oxford), pioneering naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, and Rudolf II, Renaissance king of Hungary and Bohemia.
With so much to see, where to start? The curators’ personal picks include a 17th-century Chinese porcelain jar, pearl nautilus shells, and the skeleton of a dodo. There’s also an impressive array of Roman and Anglo-Saxon coins. Then there’s the Sloane Astrolabe (an early compass of sorts).
“It looks like the Lord of the Rings’ musical logo,” jokes Hennigar.
The exhibit’s final room charts significant events of the past quarter-century. Compared to the early European timeline, the past 25 years look a little, well, unimpressive.
Hennigar disagrees. He believes we are just as curious today as before.
“People today are still keeping cabinets. Even celebrities, like Jay Leno,” he notes.
Asked if there’s just less to discover now, he disagrees and points to explorations in space: “People are still looking for signs of life out there.
“We’re still curious… And we have to be patient,” he laughs.
Collecting Curiosities is on display at the
U of T Art Centre (15 King’s College Circle) until April 8.
