Overview

In the early eighteenth century, Peter the Great established the Kunstkamera as the encyclopedic museum of the Academy of Sciences in Russia. This volume offers for the first time a complete detailed catalog of the approximately 2,200 surviving drawings of the objects in the museum's collections. The result of a five-year research effort by distinguished Russian and Dutch scholars, this comprehensive work provides a wealth of insights into the original collection of the legendary Kunstkamera. The drawings cover a wide range of disciplines, from botany and anatomy to archaeology and Chinese objects, and were used to document the objects in the museum's collections and to illustrate Academy members' publications. The volume opens with four thematic essays that consider the historical and aesthetic significance of the drawings. Nine subsequent sections discuss specific types of objects and feature numerous illustrations. A bilingual Russian-English DVD augments this volume with a detailed searchable catalog and full-color images of the complete collection of drawings. The Paper Museum of the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg is a groundbreaking work of historical research that will be an invaluable resource to historians, art specialists, and museum curators.

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9789069844268

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Reviews

The collection of drawings is a fascinating one because it is as if we stepped into an early 18th-century time capsule. . . . An intriguing mixture of historical and an ethnographic museum, a natural history and a science museum, a store of antiques and curiosities and an art museum. . .  . A book of dedication and of the highest professional standard. One can learn from this book how the world of collecting and the creation of museums worked in the Dutch Republic and Russia in the decades before and after 1700.

The collection of drawings is a fascinating one because it is as if we stepped into an early 18th-century time capsule. . . . An intriguing mixture of historical and an ethnographic museum, a natural history and a science museum, a store of antiques and curiosities and an art museum. . . . A book of dedication and of the highest professional standard. One can learn from this book how the world of collecting and the creation of museums worked in the Dutch Republic and Russia in the decades before and after 1700. -- Sehepunkte --Kees Zandvliet Sehepunkte (03/01/2007)

Author Information

Renée E. Kistemaker is a senior consultant of research and development at the Amsterdam Historisch Museum. Deborah Meijers is associate professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam and a senior researcher at the Huizinga Institute of Cultural History.Natalya K. Kopeneva is a researcher with the St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences. George L. Vilinbakhov is vice-director of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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