Cultural activity
March 5th, 2019

The Mysterious Art of "Cabinets of Curiosity"

The Mysterious Art of "Cabinets of Curiosity"
Photo: Musée des Confluences, Olivier Garcin

Lecture, part of the Les Belles soirées series
Tuesday, March 5, 2019, 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
BANQ Vieux-Montréal, 535 avenue Viger Est, Montréal
Lecture in French only

DESCRIPTION
Experiencing unprecedented growth with the blossoming of the Renaissance in the 16th century, “cabinets of curiosity” are much more than simply exercises in accumulation. They are made up of incredibly diverse collections of extraordinarily rare or even improbable objects (stuffed animals, precious stones, unusual paintings, mystery furniture, etc.). As constituent elements of the spirit of humanism, these “cabinets of wonders” aspire to reconstitute the totality of knowledge, as an antidote to existential melancholy born of an awareness of the infinite nature of the world. Even more astonishing, their spirit has lived on over the centuries, leading all the way to André Breton’s “surrealist” assemblages in the 20th century. A world to rediscover!

SPEAKER
After having studied art history, Gilles Genty went on to become a lecturer at the École du Louvre (Paris) and, later, a professor of art history. He has curated such international exhibitions as Maurice Denis (Lyon, 1995), Impressionism from Corot to Renoir (Brescia, 1998), From Caillebotte to Picasso (Québec, 2006), and Toulouse-Lautrec (Montréal, 2016). He was also the director of the Petit Palais museum in Geneva (Switzerland).

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