Kunstkammeret og Albert Eckhouts malerier

Abstract

The Eckhout-paintings and the Royal Danish Cabinet of Curiosities In the year 1654 the Dutch prince, John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen (1604–79), presented a gift consisting of 26 paintings to the Danish king, Frederik III (born 1609, reigned 1648–70). John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen had been governor of the then Dutch colony of Brazil from 1636–44. The Dutch artist Albert Eckhout (o.1610–1666), one of the many artists and scholars in John Maurice’s entourage, painted the canvases in Brazil in the 1640s.The paintings were probably placed in the Danish Royal Kunstkammer, which was founded by the King around 1650, in 1656. The Kunstkammer was initially established in the old Castle of Copenhagen. In one of the nine rooms, walls and ceiling were decorated with the Brazilian paintings. Eight large and three smaller paintings depicting different types of people from Brazil and Africa and twelve smaller ones of exotic fruits and plants were hung on the walls. A large painting of dancing Indians hung from the ceiling. Later a special building for the royal collections was erected next to the King’s residence. The Eckhout paintings with the rest of the kunstkammer collection were transferred to the new premises and were exhibited in The Indian Chamber and in The Gallery. Two of the paintings were lost before 1794.The Royal Kunstkammer existed officially until 1825, when the bulk of the objects were dispersed to newly established specialist museums. The surviving paintings were also dispersed, the greater part first exhibited in the Portrait Gallery at Frederiksborg Castle, were transferred in 1848 to the Royal Ethnographical Museum, now the National Museum of Denmark. Three of the paintings went to the Royal Picture Gallery, now the Museum of Fine Arts.