In the European culture of the Renaissance, collections and offices were repositories of not only material values, but also collections of objects of memorial, historical and artistic significance in accordance with the ideas prevailing at that time. These places partly carried out the functions that museums will perform in the next era.

1. The emergence of the museum as a
socio-cultural institution during the
Renaissance
Lecture: PhD E. Ibrayev

2. Contents
• 1 Start
• 1.1 Offices
• 1.2 Collections
• 1.3 Medici
• 1.4 Rome
• 1.5 France
• 1.6 Germany-Austria
• 2 Cabinets and
galleries of the
Renaissance
• 2.1 Exposures and
terminology
• 2.2 Studiolo
• 2.3 Antiquaries
• 2.4 Uffizi Gallery
• 2.5 Kunstkamera

3. Renaissance era
• The process of becoming a
museum as a socio-cultural
institution begins in one of the
greatest epochs in European
history - the Renaissance.
• In Italy, it covers the period from
about the middle of the XIV
century. until the last decades of
the 16th century,
• in most other countries of
Western and Central Europe, its
appearance dates back to the end
of the 15th century, and the final
period - to the beginning of the
17th century.
• The concept of "Renaissance"
appeared in Italy on the basis of
an erroneous, but widespread
concept, according to which, after
the death of a brilliant ancient
civilization, an era of hopeless
ignorance and barbarism began,
disparagingly called the "Middle
Ages".
• Considering the Middle Ages as a
simple break in the development
of culture, historians of the 16th
century considered their era to
be the first period of the revival
of art and the humanities since
antiquity.

4. Cabinets
• The first institutions of the
museum type - "Kunstkamera"
or simply "cameras", "offices",
galleries - appeared in the
16th-17th centuries. They
reflected the intellectual
curiosity of their time.
Collectors tried to concentrate
in them the heritage of the
entire natural world,
supplemented by objects of
the "artificial world" created
by human hands, and they did
this mainly to satisfy their own
cognitive interests

5. Cabinets
• "Cabinet" in the Renaissance,
presenting a model of the
surrounding world in
"miniature", reflected the
main scientific interest -
interest in the natural world.
• The founders of many open
collections were professors,
doctors, pharmacists, who
used their collections for their
own research, as well as for
teaching students, showing to
colleagues.

6. Collections
• One of the consequences of
the desire of the Renaissance
personality to comprehend
the world around him was the
rapid flowering of collecting.
• Trying to restore the ties with
the cultural traditions of
antiquity lost in the Middle
Ages, humanists searched for
and collected any material
evidence of the Greco-Roman
civilization - manuscripts,
coins, sculpture, fragments of
architecture, gems, household
utensils, inscriptions on stone
and metal.

7. Collections Medici
• In addition to the offices and cabinet
of curiosities, created for scientific
and practical purposes, collections of
the nobility and the rich bourgeois
became widespread in Europe. This
was a definite fashion of the 16th -
early 17th centuries.
• Gathering has become an
indispensable attribute of a secular
person, an expression of his
individuality.
• Many previously closed meetings of
the nobility become available for
viewing. Francesco I Medici took the
first step towards the creation of a
public museum by transforming a
private collection - studiolo - into an
open public - tribuna

8. Collections
• The museum became a
structure within which many
objects of the surrounding
world were brought together,
classified and studied, in need
of interpretation.
• The premises for collections in
such collections were called
"studiolo" in Italy. In Germany,
since the 16th century. they
were called "kunstkamera" or
"wunderkamera", in France -
"cabinet", and being intended
for plastic images - "statues"
and "antiques".

9. The Renaissance collections were characterized by a heterogeneous character:
paintings and minerals, sculpture and astrological instruments, ancient
antiquities and coconuts were adjacent to them.
This universalism reflected the intellectual restlessness of the era and its desire
to know the whole world around and the laws of its development.

10. Rome
• Rome successfully competed with
Florence in collecting and presenting
ancient artistic heritage.
• In 1471, during the reign of Pope
Sixtus IV, a group of antique bronze
statues and their fragments was
transported to the Vatican from the
vaults, the review of which became
available to ordinary art lovers.
• Later, during the Reformation, the
Capitoline Antiquary was constantly
replenished, including in order to
emphasize the cultural and political
significance of Rome for European
civilization with the richness of its
collections.

11. France
• Art collecting also developed
beyond the Alps. The French king
Francis I (1515-1547), having
suffered defeat in the Italian
wars, tried to compensate for the
failure by creating an art
collection housed in the Château
de Fontainebleau (1528-1540).
• The artistic and decorative
program of the castle was made
up by a group of Florentine
craftsmen. Here they developed a
new form of premises for
displaying works of art - a gallery,
which is a long corridor
connecting the wings of a palace
or castle. Francis I created one of
the most brilliant royal courtyards
of Europe

12. Germany-Austria
• The rulers of Bavaria from the
Wittelsbach dynasty built a cabinet of
curiosities, an art gallery and
antiques dealerships in Munich
especially for their collections.
• Among these works was A.
Altdorfer's masterpiece "The Battle of
Alexander the Great with Darius."
This was the beginning of the
creation of one of the most famous
painting collections in the world - the
Old Pinakothek in Munich.
• Thus, the museum program was
implemented, developed and
decorated by the court adviser S. von
Kvihelberg. She served as a model for
programs that later became the basis
for collections and museums in a
number of countries

13. Details The Battle of Alexander

14. • A powerful impetus to
the development of
collecting was given by
the Great Geographical
Discoveries of the 15th-
16th centuries, thanks
to which the previously
unknown worlds of
America, Africa,
Southeast Asia and the
Far East appeared
before the eyes of
Europeans.

15. • Exotic clothing and
weapons, dishes and
household utensils began
to settle in collectors'
collections, first through
the mediation of
seafarers and then special
agents.
• Samples of exotic flora
and fauna were in no less
demand than the
creations of unknown
peoples, primarily those
that struck the eye with
their color, shape or size.

16. Antiquaries
• During the Renaissance,
antique sculptures, including
fragments of them, were the
most coveted collectibles.
• They were found by chance
during construction work or
were mined as a result of
purposeful excavations, which
at that time were haphazard
and sometimes predatory.
• They were used to decorate
the palace gardens, they were
installed on the facades and
fences of estates and villas

17. Among the famous antiquarian items were the famous she-wolf, which
became the emblem of Rome, created by the Etruscan master, the famous
figure of a boy taking out a splinter - "Spinario", a statue of a servant with
sacrifices (Camille), Lacoon

18. Uffizi Gallery
• In that era, the economic
and political rivalry of the
ruling European elite was
expressed in various
forms, including
patronage, and the public
display of the
accumulated treasures
was considered one of
the obligatory
manifestations of
absolute power.

19. Uffizi Gallery
• Its design, combining
ideological content with
“eye delight”, made a
strong impression on
the minds and souls of
the audience, including
both the subjects of the
duke and his neighbors,
the rulers.

20. Kunstkamera
• In the second half of the
XVI century the splendor
of European courtyards
were already judged not
only by the luxury of
receptions, but also by
the presence of a
collection of beautiful,
outlandish and
extravagant things, which
performed primarily
representative functions.

21. Kunstkamera
• Along with stuffed animals and
fragments of real animals in
the Renaissance collections,
there were often hoaxes
created by skillful falsifiers: the
"seven-headed hydra" or
"basilisk" - a creature with the
head and wings of a rooster,
and the body of a snake. But
especially desirable for every
wealthy collector was the
"unicorn horn", which was
considered a powerful
antidote and magical defense
against hired assassins.

22. Kunstkamera
Having appeared on the wave
of new ideals and values
brought by the Renaissance
into European culture, the
Kunstkamera, along with
other cabinets of rarities, can
serve as a vivid illustration of
how the mental structures of
medieval consciousness
slowly outlived themselves.
The value orientations
characteristic of the previous
era, the “picture of the world”
and the symbolism of thinking
made themselves felt both in
the principles of selection of
collection samples and in the
concept of their exhibiting.

23. Conclusion
• In the European culture of the Renaissance,
collections and offices were repositories of
not only material values, but also collections
of objects of memorial, historical and artistic
significance in accordance with the ideas
prevailing at that time.
• These places partly carried out the functions
that museums will perform in the next era.