It began within the late 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 modern artwork to late Nineteenth- and early Twentieth-century scientific artefacts. As we speak, his ever-growing assortment numbers greater than 200 items, together with educating 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 thus far. This exhibition is fittingly housed in a palace constructed within the Tuscan-Roman fashion 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 demise 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, operating parallel to the displays of the Loudon assortment, can be a show of objects organized within the fashion 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 embrace not simply “curiosities” but in addition Venetian enamel and maiolica, work by the likes of Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese, alongside loans from worldwide establishments reminiscent of 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 fun handcrafted objects—every created by hand to advertise and encourage data and appreciation of the world—but they’re stunning in their very own proper.” This consideration to the aesthetic qualities of expertise may be seen all through Venice, from the purposeful magnificence of the gondola’s rowlocks (forcole) or within the conventional hard-lime pastelloni flooring, on which the viewers can be standing when visiting the present.
The that means of the objects within the Loudon assortment has modified through the years, 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 had been as soon as comfortably at house in a pure historical past museum change 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 boundaries, 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 reminiscent of Grimani; though separated by centuries, they had been each motivated by a profound love of nature.
“For those who see magnificence in nature, you respect it extra,” Morel says. “In my thoughts, the gathering of Giovanni is as modern as George [Loudon]’s, pushed by an instinctual notion of what’s stunning, but in addition 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 like Grimani, Loudon has made his house an evolving stage for his assortment. The expertise of getting 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 modern piece.”
• A Cupboard of Wonders: a Celebration of Artwork in Nature, Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice, 15 December-11 Might 2025
