UNEXPECTED MOTIFS in Renaissance

The Cabinet of Curiosities

You are looking at a gallery of bizarre images and unexpected motifs from real and imaginary life that displays, by means of twisted reality, the real spirit, mind and body of the Renaissance man, who is split between medieval superstition and the birth of a new Subject.

Many of these motifs were much less unusual for the Renaissance man than they appear to us today. In that time, people perceived the world in quite a different way than we do; in fact this was a short period of freedom when mind and body were equal and curiosity overpowered fear.

This cabinet of curiosities contains everything, from imaginary compositions to unusual erotic images, Madonna breast feeding the saint, a fantasy creature with fish-head and chicken feet, unusual landscapes in the shape of a human head, double images, illusionistic monsters, people with animal physiognomy, and scenes of everyday’s life like some quack removing a ‘stone of madness’ from someone’s head or a bearded woman breastfeeding…


	Gabrielle Estrees and one of her Sisters Master of the Fontainebleau School about 1595 Oil on canvas, 96 x 125 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre


	Anthropomorphic Landscape Joos de Momper 1600, after Oil on canvas, 52.5 x 39.6 cm Private collection


	Anthropomorphic Landscape Matthaus Merian, the Elder 1605, after Oil on panel, 31.8 x 41.3 cm New York, Mrs. Alfred H Barr Jr. Collection


	David and Goliath Caravaggio about 1609 Oil on canvas, 110 x 91 cm Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado


	Judith beheading Holofernes Artemisia Gentileschi about 1612 - 1620 Oil on canvas, 199 x 162.5 cm Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi


	Nicolas Trigault Peter Paul Rubens 1617 Oil on panel, 220 x 136 cm Douai, Musee de la Chartreuse


	Tobias Journey Joos de Momper about 1630 Oil on panel, 90 x 136 cm Antwerp, Rockox House


	Bearded Woman Jusepe de Ribera 1631 Oil on canvas Toledo, Hospital of Tavera


	Madonna and Child in the Clouds Rembrandt 1641 Etching and dry point Saint Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum


	Miraculous Lactation of St Bernard Alonso Cano 1650 Oil Madrid, Museo del Prado


	Still Life with Self Portrait Cornelis Gijbrechts 1663 Oil on canvas, 93 x 74 cm Prague, National Gallery

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