THE CROWNING GLORY A material analysis of the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet

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THE CROWNING GLORY

A material analysis of the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet

Teresia Strömgren

Department of Culture and Aesthetics: Art History Spring 2020

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ABSTRACT

Department: Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Art History Address: 106 91 Stockholm University

Tel: 08-16 20 00

Supervisor: Anna Bortolozzi

Title and subtitle: The Crowning Glory - a material analysis of the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet

Author: Teresia Strömgren

Address: Uppsala

Tel:

Essay level: Master thesis Essay defended (semester): Spring 2020

The top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet has been investigated from a material perspective. Starting out from identifying the constituting materials, then analyzing their positions and correlations with each other and to further consider the contextual

environment in terms of the materials accessibility and symbolic meaning in 16^th and 17^th Century Europe, representational manifestations have been observed. The obvious manifestations are: power, status and wealth all embodied in a symbiosis of natural and artificial, raw and crafted materials from the marine world and earth. The top decoration contrast to the corpus by its seemingly raw materials and asymmetric assemblage. On the other hand, the top decoration correlates to the corpus with: the natural materials, the

fulfillment of the categories outlined by Quiccheberg of what a scholarly art cabinet ought to contain, and in the love narratives at display. The top decoration’s symbolic representation is the Birth of Venus myth. In elevating these natural materials into an art installation, their aesthetics and essence invited to a reflection of them as symbols and possible keys to a deeper knowledge of the universe in its contemporary princely European courts; constituting a microcosmos.

Keywords: art cabinet, Augsburg, top decoration, materials, shells, corals, minerals, Venus, microcosmos

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INTRODUCTION

The top decoration of the Augsburg Art Cabinet in Uppsala with its assemblage of exotic materials crowns an art cabinet unique in our times, although a marvel already during the time of its making.

Aim and research questions

This thesis investigates the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet from 1625- 1631 conceived by the German cabinet maker Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647). The top decoration is not the immediate eye-catcher for a viewer, as opposed to the central corpus;

although, the top decoration both completes the cabinet and constitutes a contrast to it in terms of its form and materials.The objective is to understand how the top decoration

correlates to the cabinet and whether the top decoration has a special function, and if so, what this function is. It is therefore important to identify which materials the top decoration

consists of as they are the expression of what was on the market thanks to the new world being accessible through trade and travels. Once these materials are identified, an analysis of how these materials are positioned and displayed is feasible for the understanding of what is manifested with the entire top decoration. The material aspect is applicable in the

investigation of which materials that are crafted, how they are processed and what that might imply. Any symbolic meaning of the materials represented, individually and as a whole, is likely to manifest Hainhofer’s artistic and professional intentions with his top decoration. This thesis contributes to the existing research of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet with a

material perspective. The given opportunity of participating in the inventory made when the top decoration was dismounted from its glass case at display in Gustavianum, offered the privilege of a close study of the materials which made this thesis possible.

Literature review

How the art cabinets were produced, what they contained and their functions has been

thoroughly studied by Hans-Olof Boström, professor in Art History at Karlstad University. In

“Det underbara skåpet Philipp Hainhofer och Gustav II Adolfs konstskåp”, the Augsburg art cabinet in Uppsala from 1625-1631 by Philipp Hainhofer has been carefully analyzed.¹

1 Hans-Olof, Boström, Det underbara skåpet Philipp Hainhofer och Gustav den II Adolfs konstskåp, Uppsala, Stockholm, Elanders Gotab, 2001.

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Boström explains the prerequisites that enabled the production of luxury objects. Boström further present the mannerist ideals of Philipp Hainhofer which according to Boström

permeates the iconographic program of the cabinet. It is Boström’s contribution in regards to the possible iconographic programs that is of particular interest for present thesis.

John Philip Böttinger and his “Hainhofer und Der Kunstschrank Gustav Adolfs in Upsala”, from 1909 emanated from his inventory of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet.² This

literature is an important source concerning what the cabinet contains and the materials they are made of.

Gerlinde Bach writes about Philipp Hainhofer’s background and his art cabinet making in Augsburg.³ Although, the text mostly regards the art cabinet now in Vienna and whether it is identical with the Rudolph II art cabinet from 1631-1634 which has an unclear provenience.

This research is interesting touching upon this thesis theme in what regards the iconographic program as the Vienna art cabinet has a mountain of shells and corals somewhat similar to the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet.

From the material aspect, Gaius Secundus Pliny account in his “Natural History Books 36- 37”⁴, the categorisation and origin of minerals, and is as such a source on which some of the Middle Ages views on materials and their symbolic value is gathered from.

Writings regarding categorisations of materials and their representational meaning as symbols are Marcia Pointon’s “Brilliant Effects a Cultural History of Gem Stones & Jewellery”⁵ and Grahame Clark’s “Symbols of Excellence Precious materials as Expression of Status”⁶. These oeuvres account for the tradition of a representational meaning of objects with a material aspect. In addition to these two, Wolfram Koeppe’s “Making Marvels: Science and Splendour

2 John Böttinger, Philip Hainhofer und Der Kunstschrank Gustav Adolfs in Upsala II, Stockholm, Idun, 1909.

3 Bach Gerlinde, Jahrbuch Der Kunsthistorischen sammlungen Band 91 (Neue Folge Band LV), Wien, Anton Schroll & Co., 1995, pp. 126-127, 141-143, 145-147, 150.

4 Gaius Secundus Pliny, Natural History Books 36-37, Cambridge Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1962.

5 Marcia Pointon, Brilliant Effects a Cultural History of Gem Stones & Jewellery, New haven and London, Yale University Press, 2009.

6 Grahame Clark, Symbols of Excellence Precious materials as Expression of Status, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986.

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at the Courts of Europe”⁷ cover all sorts of marvels processed by man in times of trade of exotic materials to impress the elite at the European courts.

To understand the display of collections from the 16^th to 17^th Century Arthur MacGregor’s

“Curiosity and Enlightenment Collectors and Collections from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century”⁸ and James Delbourgo’s “Collecting the world Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum”⁹ are important reading. These extensive writings explains the reason and logic behind the collections which today might come across as unscientific or randomly organised.

Theoretical framework

The material aspect in this thesis is the main basis on which a theoretical discussion can evolve from. The top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet is an assemblage of various materials and it is foremost the identification of these that make possible a further study. The material’s essence, present as a raw or processed material, is important as the material are the embodiment of the art work. Once the materials are identified, an individual meaning and the meaning of the total assemblage as an art work is then possible to analyze.

The connection between materialism and idealism is discussed by art history professor Ann- Sophie Lehmann in her writing The matter of the medium. Some tools for an Art Theoretical Interpretation of Materials, from 2015.¹⁰ Lehmann inquire a theoretical framework, a toolbox, for material studies within art history. She argues that there have been a neglect of the

importance of the material throughout the art history tradition in favor of the reading of images and de-materialization theoretical perspectives. Her conviction that materials and ideals are strongly connected makes the materials matter in the art history field. As Lehmann expresses it, the materials are meaningful components to the visual artefacts but cannot be separated from representation.

7Wolfram Koeppe, Making Marvels: Science and Splendour at the Courts of Europe, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Arts, 2019.

8Arthur MacGregor, Curiosity and Enlightenment Collectors and Collections from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2007.

9James Delbourgo, Collecting the world Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum, Cambridge Massachusetts, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2017.

10 Ann-Sophie Lehmann, “The matter of the medium. Some tools for an Art Theoretical Interpretation of Materials”, in (eds.) Anderson, C., Dunlop, A., Smith, P.H., The Matter of Art: Materials, Technologies, Meanings 1200-1700, Manchester, Manchester City Press, 2015.

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The theoretical framework with the material focus will be supplemented by a post-colonial attention, as the collection of marvels during the 16^th Century depend on what was amassed by European colonial powers and their discovery and exploit of the New world. This attention will be manifested when expressing the origin of the top decoration’s materials and in the discussion of the material’s possible symbolic meanings. The context of a mutual cultural and scholarly agreement on what objects that was expected to take part in an art cabinet are requisites for the existence of an art cabinet. Without this agreement on what are considered luxury products and exclusive and rare objects, is in fact considered from a European 16^th Century perspective.

The term art cabinet is in this thesis used instead of the broader curio cabinet. Whether art cabinet is the appropriate appellation here is a larger question not possible to answer within the limitation of this thesis, as the entire Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet would have to be investigated. Although a justification of the term decided on will be discussed in The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet as a microcosmos.

Method and material

The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet is normally displayed at Gustavianum in Uppsala, but is now in storage due to the museum’s renovation. The primary source for this thesis is the art work that crowns the art cabinet: an assemblage of various natural and crafted materials such as minerals, corals and shells. They are mounted on a wooden box containing a music box and a table clock hidden within. For information from the conservation reports and older photos, the Uppsala University Art Collections archival materials 1976-2004 are relevant.¹¹

Documented writings such as Hainhofer’s letters are accessible through Hans-Olof Boström.¹² Sources regarding minerals and their symbolic value is collected from Gaius Secundus Pliny in his “Natural History”.¹³ The treaty on the scholarly intentions of the art cabinets by Samuel Quiccheberg is to be found in his Inscriptiones vel tituli theatre amplissimi.¹⁴In what regards the origin of the Greek myths, the “Theogony” probably written by Greek poet Hesiod (end

11 Augsburgska konstskåpets Konservering [F 4e:1] 1976-2004 and Augsburgska konstskåpet Fotografier [uå F 4 f:1], in Uppsala University Art Collection.

12 Boström, Det underbara skåpet Philipp Hainhofer och Gustav den II Adolfs konstskåp, 2001.

13 Pliny, Natural History Books 36-37, 1962.

14Samuel Quiccheberg, Inscriptiones vel tituli theatre amplissimi, Munic, Ex Officina Adami Berg, 1565.

Available from: Books Google, (accessed 20 May 2020).

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8^th Century B.C.) are accessed through one Swedish and one English translation¹⁵ and Ovid’s

“Metamorphoses”¹⁶ accessed through a Swedish translation.

To be able to analyze what is manifested in the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet, the individual materials of it must be identified. From the help of experts with a material knowledge the identification of objects and their materials can be established.¹⁷ From there, the materials, their positions and correlations to each other, and the nature of the

materials will be investigated. Once carefully studied, literary secondary sources will be consulted to understand: the accessibility of the concerned materials, their origin and symbolic value. By contextualizing this information to Hainhofer’s context of: collecting, artistic philosophies and professional position, an analysis of the function of the top decoration as a whole will take place.

In addition to the material analysis, an iconographical-iconological method according to Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) to perform the contextual analysis is applicable. The reason for this is that present thesis would like to explore a possible representational meaning of the art work, and to discuss likeable theories of why the art cabinet display exactly this top

decoration. The hypothesis is that the materials combined in an installation have more than one function. The time, place and culture that constitutes the context are important factors for what kind of idea that was realized.

Panofsky’s iconographical-iconological methods works in three steps.¹⁸ This thesis will apply the following steps: to identify the materials according to what they are made of, if they are natural or artificial, raw or crafted. In the second step consider their positioning and if any symbolic value is presented. In the third step the materials origin and value in the context of 17th century collecting with a post-colonial consideration will be discussed.

Disposition

The first chapter trace the prerequisites for the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet and its top decoration: the global world trade, the city of Augsburg, Philipp Hainhofer’s artistic

15Elof Hellquist,Hesiodos Theogoni, Lund, C. W. K. Gleerups förlag, 1924, and Richard S. Caldwell, Hesiod’s Theogony, Cambridge, Focus Information Group, 1987.

16 Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorfoser, Stockholm, Natur och Kultur, 2017

17 Anna Persson and Dan Holtstam, Naturhistoriska museet, Johan Kjellman, Uppsala universitet.

18 Hans-Olof Boström, Panofsky och ikonologin, 2^nd edn. Karlstad, Karlstad University Press, 2004.

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intentions in the context of the Renaissance thinker Paracelsus’s theories of material studies.

The second chapter account the materials present and the analysis of their functions. A summary and a presentation of the results concludes the thesis.

Delimitations

This thesis investigates the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet. The

correlations with the art cabinet will therefore be limited to the apparent manifestation of the cabinet; time and extent of the thesis limits the possibility to investigate all existing themes and narratives of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet. Because of their intrinsic mechanic constructions, this thesis will only touch upon the table clock and the music box and investigate their addition to the whole of the top decoration according to their functions.

These two objects will not be included in the material study. Because of restricted travel possibilities, any primary sources in terms of letters and travel journals from Philipp Hainhofer has not been accessible in the writing of this thesis.

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THE ART CABINETS OF AUGSBURG

The discovery of the new world, the trade and the geographic position of Augsburg were important prerequisites for the creation of the art cabinets of Augsburg. The city’s economic, religious, philosophical and artistic situation made the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet

possible.

The world trade during early 17th Century

During the 17^th Century the Portuguese and Spanish dominating role as colonial world leaders was challenged by England, France and foremost the Netherlands. The Dutch colonial politics consisted of private trading companies handling the oceanic trade, and by the second half of the century the English and the Dutch were the main rivals of the world trade market.¹⁹ The colonization of the new world enriched the European countries by exploiting the natural resources and by using the native population. It was a lucrative time for Europeans to discover the richness and wonders of the world. The European courts would send out ambassadors to find exotic objects for display in the princely collections of marvels as expression of power and wealth.²⁰ Hainhofer in his turn, employed persons in charge of tracking up exotic objects.

As a well-travelled man, he had connections in several cities. The yearly market in Frankfurt am Main was frequently attended by Hainhofer for the possibility to acquire exotic objects from the Dutch merchants.

Augsburg

When the domination of Hanseatic League diminished in the beginning of the 16^th Century and the mining in the Central Europe increased, the economic power relocated to foremost the city of Augsburg and Nurnberg. Augsburg was an important trade hub because of its strategic location between Italy and North Europe and the Western Europe and the Holy Roman Empire (Image 1). With the city’s tradition of crafts, in particular in the textile industry, a stable economic situation developed, and increased the possibility to invest in new better methods to exploit the mines. This lucrative business promoted private merchants to expand their natural resources exploit to other countries. The mining industry, the metal and the Transocean trade made way for a powerful banking business. In addition to this, in 1555 a treaty governing a freedom of religion and an equality between the Catholics and the

19 Delbourgo, Collecting the world Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum, pp. 20-22.

20 Koeppe, Making Marvels: Science and Splendour at the Courts of Europe, p. 51.

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Lutherans. Thus, the city had an economic, geographic and religious secured situation to maintain an elaborate artisan and carpenter business. The economic rise was followed by an economic decline from the second half of the sixteenth century, but the city’s artisan fame remained. The economic decline with an overproduction and thus lower prices for ordinary goods resulted in turn in a blossoming of the luxury industry which could persist during the thirty-year war.²¹

Image 1 In the Middle Ages: European trade and conquest, Pastpresentdnl,

https://pastpresentdnl.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/in-the-middle-ages-european-trade-routes-and-conquests/, 2015.

The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet

The art cabinets of Augsburg were cabinets built upon the tradition of the Spanish and Italian desks as examples of elaborated furniture.²² Although, their desk functions were subordinate their displaying function, where a collection of specimens and art objects were to be displayed as curiosities. Materials such as high-grade wood, precious stones, and noble metal constitutes the finely elaborated Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet. With exotic and exclusive materials as well as elaborated mechanics and optical instruments, the art cabinet provide a wide range of entertainment in an aesthetic installation. The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet was made during 1625-1631 by a great number of artisans, although its creator was Philipp Hainhofer.

Carpenter Ulrich Baumgartner who made two of Hainhofer’s earlier cabinets in ebony and his Vienna art cabinet with a similar top decoration is likely to be the principal master. The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet was not a commissioned object. When Gustav II Adolf 1632 entered Augsburg, Hainhofer’s Protestant councilors decided to buy it and give it amongst

21 Boström, 2001, pp. 17-29.

22 Boström, 2001, p. 30.

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other gifts to the king as a peace offering. In 1633 the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet arrived in Stockholm. Although, Gustaf II Adolf never lived to see it finished as he died in 1632, hence it was inherited by Queen Christina and placed in Svartsjö castle. In 1655 it was transported to Uppsala castle as a donation to Uppsala University and since 1694 it has been located at Gustavianum.²³

Philipp Hainhofer

Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647) was of a noble family, Protestant, and born in Augsburg.

During his youth he was sent on an education travel with his younger brother Hieronymus to Italy where he studied law at the university of Padua and Siena. Thereafter he travels through Italy, he studies Dutch and French in Cologne and travels through the Netherlands.

At home he took up his father’s business with trade, mostly Italian silk fabric and started his trade with luxury merchandise. He was in a position to stock luxury products which he displayed. This put him in a position to design and monitor the fabrication of the outmost luxury items: the art cabinets. Hainhofer commissioned and monitored local artisans which he supplied with materials.

Besides his trading business Hainhofer was correspondent to important people like Henry IV of France, duke August Braunschweig-Lüneberg and later duke Friedrich of Holstein. These commissions were important as representation as printed press did not exist. He was entrusted with diplomacy charges as representation at weddings, baptism, funerals and political

gatherings. He was a respected man from both Catholics and Protestants in his hometown.

Although, already before the economic decline of the city of Augsburg, Hainhofer had put himself in a strained economic situation. He continued his art cabinet making and used his diplomatic skills to try to find buyers for them. At his deathbed, he finally got a buyer for his last art cabinet that prevented his family from a heritage consisted of debts.²⁴

Philipp Hainhofer’s collecting and inspiration

According to Hans-Olof Boström, Philipp Hainhofer’s collection started out with primary fossils and ethnographic objects. He extended his collecting to coins and medals which later

23 Uppsala University Gustavianum [website],

https://gustavianum.uu.se/samlingar/konstsamlingar/utstallningar/augsburgska-konstsk%C3%A5pet/, (accessed 23 May 2020).

24Boström, 2001, pp. 56-65.

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came to include art and antiquities. In a letter to one of his most important correspondent duke August of Braunschweig-Lüneberg he proudly writes that visitors admired his beautiful and rare naturalia from the four elements. Hainhofer’s documented inspiration to the mountain that crowns the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet might come from his visit to duke Albrecht V kunstkammer in Munich in 1560 where he expresses his admiration by the coral collection, where mountains of corals were displayed. Another example of inspiration might have been the goldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer in Nürnberg that decorated his cabinets with assemblages of stones. The Jamnitzer family was renowned for their elaborated creations, by modelling the richness of earth with precious metal. Hainhofer decorated another of his cabinets, the Rudolph II art cabinet with a shell assemblage of minor proportion, in now in Vienna (1631- 1634), earlier in Queen Christina’s possession.²⁵

The mannerist style permeates these luxury objects with their playfulness and finely modelled items. The forms in transformation and the imitation of nature plays with the metamorphosis of tales and is displayed in the processed creations. Symmetries are distorted in the search for the intrinsic characteristics of the material. This is emphasized by the oversized Seychelles nut vessel on the verge of tipping over.

In letters by Hainhofer, Boström acknowledge that mannerism was the artistic aesthetics of Philipp Hainhofer. Repeatedly in his writing, Hainhofer’s fascination of the interaction between art and nature percolates; the sense of nature as an artist or the arts that creates as nature. It is therefore in his fascination to art works that are rare, that amaze and amuse, Hainhofer adopts the mannerist style.²⁶ To what degree Hainhofer was involved in the top decorations final being cannot be verified, however we must presuppose that the top

decoration manifested his visual and representational idea as he approved of the final result.

The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet as a microcosmos

As a travelled and educated man, directing the artistic program of these intricate art cabinets, Philipp Hainhofer ought to have been aware of the philosophical movements evolving during the Renaissance directing towards the Enlightenment. When the perception of the world was in transformation: new continents and cultures were discovered and Galileo’s theory of the sun being the center of the universe, old ideas and authorities were questioned. The perception of God and religion had to be remolded to fit the new discoveries.

25 Boström, 2001, pp. 45-46, 81-81, 91, 66, 130.

26 Boström, 2001, p. 89.

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One of the Renaissance philosopher was Doctor Theophrastus Bombastus ab Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus (1492-1541). Paracelsus praised reasoning and experiment in the search for knowledge in his writings such as “Opus Paramirum”. Paracelsus ideas of the light of Nature as opposed to the light of God, reflects the belief in man’s boundless possibilities not restricted by God. Paracelsus believed that God manifested himself in nature in names, colors, shapes and numbers that governed the relationship between the microcosmos and the

macrocosmos; thus the small world repeated the great world. Man could become a magus, a wise man, who knew the signs. ²⁷ This could be exemplified by the belief that natural objects as stones could reveal the physiognomy of universe. It was for the magi to read the signs of nature, to interpret them, and when a man had learnt to decipher the hidden messages he could become as powerful as God.To collect, process and analyze actual objects of nature in an art cabinet, the art cabinet became an embodiment of the real world.

According to Paracelsus, the universe was embodied in natural objects. This theory evolved the simple collection of arts and exotic things, a curio cabinet or Wunderkammer, to an

educational mean for humanity, the Kunstkammer or art cabinet.²⁸ The collection of objects to entertain and challenge the things known to man was a way to create a microcosmos.The art cabinet could be created by humans with the aim to reflect upon the macrocosmos; to raise collecting as an expression of wealth, status and power to an educational purpose. The art collections were aimed for analyzing the real world, not mere to reflect on it symbolically.²⁹ The idea on how to collect the world in a microcosmos is treated by Protestant Samuel Quiccheberg, the physician and advisor of Duke Albert V of Bavaria. In 1565 Quiccheberg outlined a treaty in his “Inscriptiones vel tituli theatre amplissimi” on what categories of objects an art cabinet ought to contain to fulfil this scholar intention of understanding the whole divine creation.³⁰ Hence, the ideal art cabinet for an encyclopedic knowledge of the world. The overall impression of an art cabinet was of course to glorify its owner with precious and rare objects, though the intellectual challenge was to display the processing of nature by human creativity; thus, these collections were a symbiosis of art and nature.³¹ All

27 Henry M. Pachter, Paracelsus Magic into Science, New York, Henry Schuman Inc, 1951, pp. 2, 5, 11-12, 79- 80, 206-207.

28 Koeppe, p. 36.

29MacGregor, Curiosity and Enlightenment Collectors and Collections from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, p. 19.

30SamuelQuiccheberg, Samuel, Inscriptiones vel tituli theatre amplissimi, Munic, Ex Officina Adami Berg, 1565. Available from: Books Google, (accessed 20 May 2020).

31 Koeppe, 43-44.

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kinds of objects could fit in to the categories: naturalia (products of nature), artificialia (crafted artefacts), exotica (artifacts from foreign lands), memorabilia (tokens and portraits of figures), scientifica (measuring and mathematical instruments) in this scholar search for knowledge.³² When Hainhofer designs his art cabinets, he had to be aware of the tautologies of the chosen objects, the objects had to cohere to one or several categories to deserve their belonging to an art cabinet for reflection and deeper knowledge of the universe.

The designated buyer

According to the letters of Philipp Hainhofer, he made the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet without a particular buyer in mind. He searched for the right buyer by writing to princely courts in Europe suggesting it as a gift to prominent persons as the king Phillip IV of Spain and his queen Elizabeth of France, and he had earlier contacted Maria de Medici.³³ In

Hainhofer’s letters regarding his other art cabinets, their top decorations were to represent the overall theme of the art cabinets. This is valid for the art cabinet with a suggested destination to Queen Christina, now in Vienna, where the iconographic program has been interpreted as the relation man-woman. The Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet is similarly displaying a top decoration with a marine theme and has in addition love themes present. Boström concludes that Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet expresses an intended female destination as a similar iconographic program is present. Further, as the destination changed, the iconographic program slightly changed with it, to a broader “a collection of the whole world” as the signature theme, with the interaction between art and nature.³⁴

32 Koeppe, pp. 35-36.

33 Boström, 2001, pp. 103-105.

34Boström, 2001, p. 115.

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MATERIAL ANALYSIS OF THE UPPSALA AUGSBURG ART CABINET

The materials of the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet is analyzed and presented from inside out ending with the crowning Seychelles nut. The top decoration is an assemblage of shells, corals, metals and minerals. They are all mounted on a wooden box, covered with brown clay which has been colored and decorated with large grained pigments, small leaves and pieces of moss. On some of the areas a short haired green rug is covering the clay layer. In some places the original dark brown clay have been substituted by lighter red and white clay, and the later white clay dominates along the base borders. The current

appearance of the top decoration is not the original appearance, as there are evident losses. In the clay layer, in particular around the base, there are residues of corals. There are

additionally uneven holes in the clay where supposedly minerals have been attached. The Seychelles nut vessel, the larger four shells and the nautilus are not permanently fixed. The surfaces under these detachable objects are decorated, as if these areas when seen nude hence still fit in.

The wooden box

A wooden box with a separate wall between the spaces for the table clock and the music box constitutes the top decoration (Image 2). The wood is made of the conifer family, it has not been established whether it is the juniperus or the cupressus genera.³⁵ A brown clay layer covers the wooden box and constitutes the adhesive that keeps the minerals and shells at place.³⁶ The clay is colored green and are in some places daubed with large grained pigments in various colored as white, silver, blue, turquoise and ochre decorated with fabricated leaves and pieces of moss (Image 3). Along the borders under the two doors, a blue color is used on the wood. The stand for the nautilus and helmet shells are sculpted out of wood. The leaves resemble real leaves, similar to oak leaves, made of a thin pulp. The branches for the leaves are probably made of an organic material, with its straw like appearance. The moss is likely to be pieces of organic material. On top of the of the clay layer, around the agate platform, a green shorthaired rug covers the clay and on the surfaces under the large shells, a soft texture in green and yellow covers the clay, like a felt. Some metal devices are integrated in the top

35 According to wood conservator Johan Ekström, 2019.

36 Amorf material according to a XRF-analysis by Pedro Berastegui (Institutionen för kemi, Ångström), 2019.

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decoration with the functions of: attachments of the objects, opening devices for the doors and devices connected to the instruments inside.

Image 2 The wood visible in the space for the music box, mechanical devices for the missing door is visible. The blue and green colored clay are clearly visible, as are the broken pieces of corals on the left side. The felt-like material under the

missing shell.

On the front side, a table clock that shows hours, minutes, dates and the phases of the moon is hidden under a mineral decorated door. On top of the clock is a manual calendar plate. This plate has been connected with the virginal to set the time for an automatic playing of the virginal.

On the back side the music box which show a landscape with two figures and a dear, is hidden under the second door equally decorated with minerals. When the mechanism worked one of the figures started to play his lyre and the other figure with the spear got concealed behind the cypress. This scene is said to display the love tale of Cypresses, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, when Cypresses turns in to a tree before the eyes of Apollo, after he killed his beloved

dear.³⁷,³⁸ The metamorphose illustrated in a symbiosis of crafted and natural materials alludes to something mysterious as well as the love theme.

37 Boström, 2001, p. 152.

38Ovidius, Metamorfoser, p. 250-252.

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As there is little green present in the corpus, the nuance of green are probably not chosen to correlate to the corpus and must therefore have another function. The fact that the surfaces under the detachable shells are of felt, they constitute a softer embedment for the shells. The green colour or the short green rug that covers the brown clay alludes to soil covered with grass. The forest connotation is further added by the branches, leaves and moss which brings to mind a natural mountain (Image 3 and Image 4).

Image 3 Visible crafted leave decorations with stems.

White, ochre, turquoise and blue large grain pigments visible, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

Image 4 4 Pieces of artificial leaves and organic pieces of moss. A hole in the clay from a missing part is visible between the coral and the quarts. Photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

The pigments in white, glittery silver, various blues, turquoise and even ochre offers a contrast and enhancement of the colours of the minerals. They might have helped reflecting the light in this scenic installation. The mix of marine and earthly materials offers no clear symbolic representation, though it allure to a mystic water or earthly formation.

The earthly riches thanks to the mining business was used as a theme by artisans to illustrate the connection between the macrocosmos of heaven with the microcosmos of the mine; the artisan crafting the material becomes a metaphor of natural resources processed by man.

As the genea of the wood has not been established, it is not possible to reveal any symbolic representations. However, juniper is said to have protecting qualities and the cypress, would provide a beautiful connection to the love theme and the Cypresses myth. The top decoration is disguised like an overgrown grotto, hiding elaborated instruments as time and place caught in a clock, made by man. One can just imagine the impression the top decoration must have made in the right light, playing music by itself meanwhile offering a time for reflection to the privileged audience.

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The greatest part of the top decoration consist of materials from the marine world. The corals and shells provides with their various forms a vivid organic assemblage.

Corals

The top decoration is decorated with risen pieces of corals. The colors vary from red to pink, white and one black coral. Two pieces of corals are short branched and colorless, probably made of glass. The branched corals almost exclusively have what it seems like broken ends, although a three have finely carved endings. The black coral, one large pink coral and one smaller orange coral are integrated on top of the Seychelles’ nut.

The black coral is situated right behind the silver figurine. It is branched as a handle and is highly polished. Modest as it seems, the black coral bind the three different parts of the art cabinet together as it is positioned in the symmetrical vertical center picking up the black color of the ebony, being the dominant color connecting all three parts of the furniture, the base, the central corpus and the top decoration. Positioned as it does behind the silver figurine, it brings to mind a helm to steer the vessel.

Two of the corals are highly diverse from the others as they are made of what seems to be glass (Image 5 and Image 6). They are evenly short branched, clear and insignificant size wise.

They have what it seems like the original clay in their attachment to the basic structure and are not likely secondary. One is placed quite hidden close to the agate platform and one more visible on one of the sides. They might be caprices in terms of materials challenging the viewer’s mind of what is natural material and what is not. Or, they might have a light

reflecting or diffracting purpose, more evident in times where there were no artificial light and the shadows ought to have a significant part to play.

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Image 5 Glass coral visible close to the agate platform next to natural red coral on the blue pigmented clay, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

Image 6 Glass coral visible next to pieces of natural white corals, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

There are pieces of pink coral at the upper part of the top decoration, and the most evident one is positioned at the far back on the Seychelles’ nut vessel. They are all polished and don’t have crafted endings. The large piece on the vessel is heavily branched and because of its position in comparison to the silver figurine, it alludes to a sail in full wind.

The more orange pieces of corals, one on the vessel and the others under the vessel and at the base of the top decoration are all polished and not crafted in the endings except for three. The three carved branches are placed under the tail of the vessel, above the acropora coral. Two of them are carved as short fingers on hands, the third one is less readable (Image 7). Boström suggest that they are crafted as three short finger and the fourth embracing the thumb, hence the mano in fica gesture: a fist with the thumb showing in between the forefinger and middle finger. This gesture pointed to person have been seen in depictions of the mocking of Christ with the signification of scorn. It has further been used as a protective gesture against the evil eye, as well as given a sexual allusion according to its visual appearance.³⁹

The protective signification is slightly emphasized by their position at the front, as the vessel moves forward the pointing gestures drive off the evil forces.

The little orange branch in front of the silver figurine gives a more neutral wind or foresail connotations. One coral is carved in a dolphin like figure and positioned next to the nautilus shell (Image 8).

39 Boström, 2001, p. 150.

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Image 7 The three carved corals, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

Image 8 Carved orange coral, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

The deeper red corals are all placed under the vessel. They are polished which brings forth their lively color. Positioned as they are, had they’ve been white they would have alluded to a frothy ocean, as to know they brings to mind vibrant flames in their nuances of red. The Latin name for the classification of soft corals are the genus gorgonia that belongs to the family gorgoniidae. These names allude to the myth of the gorgon Medusa. Their origin as sprung from the blood of Medusa has assigned them with apotropaic, thus protecting, qualities.

According to Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, Perseus made a bed out of branches and reed, and lay down the head of Medusa on it. These branches and reeds were petrified by the spell of Medusa and turned into hard materials. The nymphs rejoiced themselves by trying this miraculous transformation on other branches and threw them in the ocean. That is why we today see corals softly swaying in the water, but they harden as soon as they touch the air.⁴⁰ The red corals were therefore said to be a protection from the evil eye as sprung from the blood of Medusa. The red corals are still used in jewelry as gems to children as protection.⁴¹ In the painting Homo Bulla Est, by K. Dujardin in 1663, the red coral is depicted in the alluded theme of the Birth of Venus-tale, where the vanitas symbolism, the transience of life,

40Ovidius, pp. 131-132.

41Pointon, pp. 127-133.

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is connected to the ever hard red coral.⁴² The red color can further allude to blood of Christ and its treelike structure to the Tree of Jesse.

The red corals were known to be harvested along west Mediterranean between North Africa and Italy and around Malaysia and Japan. Industry in Torre del Greco south of Naples since Classical times.⁴³ These cities were renowned for their skills and therefore even Japanese corals were occasionally sent there to be processed.

Some of the white pieces of coral looks rawer in their processing. They are integrated in various places on the top decoration. Here we find the acropora corals of different families.

The brain coral (Figure 5) is centered on one of the sides offers a round form in contrast to the domination of the many sharp-pointed shells. Some of the branched white corals are not polished and contributes to the aesthetics with their soft organic form. They are the less processed materials of the top decoration.

The prolifera coral stands out as a solitary branch besides the milky quartz and ankerite (Image 9). Its erected position risen from the quartz with a fouling similar to the oceans froth might constitutes a Venus connection to be discussed in The Birth of Venus myth.

42 Pointon, pp. 127-133.

43 Clark, Symbols of Excellence Precious materials as Expression of Status, p. 26-27.

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Image 9 Single branched white coral next to milky quartz and the ankerite, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2019.

During the 16^th Century corals had not been properly classified; whether coral was a mineral, vegetable or an animal had not been established.⁴⁴ Its unknown classification and different stages as a soft organism in water as opposed to the hard and therefore easily carved material when out of the water contributed to various hypothesis of it as a symbol.⁴⁵ Corals were part of the marine life and as such gifts of nature. They could simply represent the element water and fire: water as coming from the ocean, and fire in regards to the color of red coral and its branches as flames of fire.

Shells

There are several shells integrated in the top decoration. An identification of the different kinds will be mapped in the appendix (from 42). Five large shells have been promoted with prominent positions and will therefore be mentioned in this part. There is the species of: the cassis, the charonia, the trochus, the turbo marmoratus, and the nautilus which in fact is a cuttlefish. They are all positioned on the base of the top decoration.

44 Pointon, pp. 131.

45 Pointon, p. 112-115.

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Many of the decorative shells have been placed displaying their decorative surface and patterns, the apertural view. However, some of them are placed up-side down, from a snail’s perspective, the abapertural view as exemplified by the conidae, the cone snail, placed on the lid to which we will return to in Seychelles nut.

The cassis species, known as the helmet shell, has been displayed on the art cabinet’s front piece (Image 10). Before the restoration of the cabinet in 1976, it has been placed with the aperture up, as viewed from older pictures of the cabinet (Image 11). It was the only one of the large shells placed in the abapertural position and facing the viewer. As the conservation report got lost at the disease of the restorer, there is no information available whether this new position was intentional or not.⁴⁶ However, in repositioning the shell, some of its symbolic value might have got lost.

Image 10 The helmet shell from a pertural view, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2019.

Image 11 The helmet shell from an abapertural view, copyright Uppsala University Art Collection, not dated.

What might be a proof of an original different position, the abapertual, is the visible hole on top of the shell, perhaps intended for the shells attachment or simply a hole from the

naticidae, the predatory moon snail. If the cassis shell had been placed in the abapertural position originally, the contrast between it and the polished and crafted nautilus would have provided two extremities namely naturalia and artificialia at the two opposite sides of the top decoration. Fossils of the cassis species have been found all over the world far back in time.

The nautilus is on the opposite side of the cassis, on the front piece (Image 12). Here, the nautilus functions as an example of the artificialia, how nature has been process by man, as

46 According to Thomas Heinemann responsible for the Uppsala University Art Collection, 2019.

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well as being an exotic object expressing the marine theme. It has carved ornaments as birds and ranks of leaves. The nautilus provides an elaborated crafted example in great contrast to the seemingly raw natural cassis. The nautilus was fished in the Pacific Ocean, probably processed in China in specialized workshops, and brought to Europe by the Dutch merchants and the East India Company.⁴⁷

The turbo marmoratus is also known as the green turban (Image 13). As with the nautilus shell, the nacre is exposed when the outer surface is removed. This shell is not explicitly crafted, though positioned to see the shiny nacre. These shells live in the Indo Pacific Oceans in their tropical reefs.

The large charonia species are known as the Tritons trumpet (Image 15). Triton, son of

Neptune, is often depicted blowing these kinds of shells which have been used as megaphones in many cultures. The shell is probably positioned to be recognized by its form alluding to the tritons trumpet and the mythological marine theme. They have been found in various water all over the world, the larger one is found in the Pacific Ocean.

47 Boström, 2001, p. 151.

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The trochus species, here the tectus niliticus known as the top shell, are recognized for their nacre (Image 14). When processed, the outer surface is removed and the iridescent nacre is brought forth. Here, one smaller species with a striped pattern is repeatedly positioned over the white brain coral, and one similar in another appearance at the far right under the triton shell, as a to display a trinity of the sharp-pointed shell. These shells are common and live in the Indo Pacific Ocean.

However small, the cone shells positioned next to the silver figurine are venomous (Image 20).

In placing this venomous shell as the only natural shell on the Seychelles vessel in the

abapertural position, the symbolism is twofold: the sexual love connection is possible, as well as the connection to the literal origin of Venus’s Latin name alluding to one of her different characteristics – as will be explained in The Birth of Venus myth.

Because of a snail’s visual resemblance in an abapertual view, with a woman’s womb, the erotic love connection present itself, according to Boström. The erotic love theme might be reinforced by the aphrodisiac effect a shellfish is said to have.⁴⁸ Shells have in addition a visual analogy with an eye and has therefore believed to have a prophylactic effect against evil eye.⁴⁹

Shells have probably been legitimate currency in China since the 1600 B.C. Arab and later Portuguese traders brought them to West Africa when exchanging the cargo for ivory and

48 Koeppe, p. 84.

49Clark, p. 23.

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slaves.⁵⁰ The shells were part of the distant unknown world, representing the marine world, expressing the exotic and thus rare value which made them desirable in the European collections.

Minerals

The minerals of the top decoration varies in color, size, shape and form. An identification of existing minerals is found in the appendix (from p. 42). They correlate with the corpus with some of the materials and colors, although they contrast to it with their seemingly raw not crafted appearance. Although, they are all processed to bring fourth their significant characteristics. As already mention, the precious metals: gold and silver, are present on the Seychelles nut vessel.

Image 16 The agate platform seen from above, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

When the Seychelles nut vessel is removed, the impressing agate platform is visible (Image 16). Surrounded by the short green rug slightly overlapping some of the borders, it alludes to a calm lake where the nuances, especially the amber colors, gives the illusion of a three-

dimensional depth. Emphasizing the natural landscape illusion, tiny leaves on brittle branches surrounds the platform, where the larger corals with their tree-structure frames it. According to Pliny, agate in general is hard and useful for carving, and it could be used to counteract bites of scorpions and spiders.⁵¹

50 Clark, pp. 25-26.

51 Pliny, p. 279.

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Fronting the top decoration, a broad variety of minerals is displayed. This side, more than alluding to something in particular, displays the great variety of specimens as a scenic installation. Only the door to the table clock present quartz in its many variations, as if to present the many variations of one mineral. There is a dynamic present with: the flaky barite, next to the soft bubbly malachite, only to be interrupted by the erected unpolished hematite next to the flaming red and sharply transparent glossy rock-crystal (Image 17). The rock- crystal was according to Pliny originated from a freezing process in opposition to the volcanic originate minerals and only found in places with cold winters.⁵² Although its resemblance to ice, its iron oxidized form with the nuances of red brings on the contrary to mind a flaming fire. Here, the rock-crystals embodies the clash between the representations of elements.

Image 17 Amethyste, baryte, hematite, malachite and rock-crystal, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

The seemingly unprocessed brownish erected hematite on the left side with its red veins and its slightly flaky surface has strong resemblances to a piece of wood and constitutes a

contrasts to the soft polished black hematite on the right. At a close look the black processed hematite with its shiny hard lines correlates to the black ebony (Figure 2). For the initiated, this totally different appearances of the same mineral is fascinating. The black hematite was

52 Pliny, p. 181.

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said to be good for bloodshot and could be used as remedy for bladder trouble or as an antidote for snake-bites.⁵³

The purple amethyst is integrated all over the top decoration as a harmonious color addition.

Amethyst is easy to engrave and thus appreciated by artisans for gems. According to Pliny, they falsely prevent drunkenness, and could be used as protection to keep off hail and

locusts.⁵⁴ The green malachite attracts the attention foremost of its opaque turquoise color and its smooth shiny surface. Had there been more azurite in the malachite of the top decoration, the correlation with the lapis lazuli inlays in the corpus had perhaps been more striking. The play between the patterns of the centered brain coral is repeated in the shifting colors of the malachite with some azurite in it. Malachite was said to have prophylactic powers, thus appreciated as protection for children.⁵⁵

The back side of the top decoration displays a less variety of minerals in comparison to the front side. Here, the pyrite glimmers over the hidden door as a connotation of the mine which hides treasures (Image 2). The golden colored pyrite is known as fool’s gold, now

unfortunately undergoing a decomposing process and losing its gold like surface.⁵⁶ The pyrite was used in pharmacy for their warming and drying effects and for treating sores and boils.

They were known as firestones because the great amount of fire in them.⁵⁷ The warm golden pyrite contrasts to the icy impression of the edgy quartz covering the door.

The ankerite display an intricate organic form, a seemingly hybrid of a mineral and a coral, contrasting and corresponding to the erected transparent rock-crystal and the long branch of white coral (Image 9). The resemblance of ankerite with the marine corals are recalled by the many white corals that surrounds it, as a metamorphose play with nature and an allusion to the Birth of Venus myth discussed in The Birth of Venus myth.

Minerals were mined all over the world, although many of the crystals in the top decoration are minerals to be found in central Europe. From Hainhofer’s letters one can tell that he got supplies from large European trade- and market cities; he had his brother Christoph in Florence, from where he supposedly got his precious stones for the inlays.⁵⁸

53 Pliny, pp. 115-116.

54 Pliny, p. 263.

55 Pliny, p. 257.

56 According to a XRF-analysis by Pedro Berastegui (Institutionen för kemi, Ångström), 2019.

57 Pliny, pp. 112-113.

58 Boström, 2001, p. 59.

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The collecting of gems, raw mined minerals, is said to be a worldwide phenomenon since the beginning of times.⁵⁹ Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) describes the first token of our appreciations for gemstones is the tale of Prometheus ring which was a piece of a rock enclosed in an iron bezel.⁶⁰ In the last two books of Pliny’s Natural history which consists of 37 books, he deals with stones and account for their magic and medical powers.

Minerals and precious stones are efficient objects for representation. Theirs aesthetic appearance with their variety of colors and their light reflecting qualities gives them a

decorative value. Their durability makes them appreciated by artisans for an artistic value. In addition to this, a social and cultural agreement of their preciousness give them a monetary and social hierarchic value. The mystery surrounds them as originated from earth in a raw appearance, and when discovered and processed by man they reveal the most beautiful forms and shapes. It is not surprising that from the antiquity and throughout the middle Ages, raw mined minerals were bearer of meaning and could be read as signs of cosmos.⁶¹

Image 18 The Seychelles nut vessel, copyright Uppsala University Art Collection, not dated.

Seychelles nut

The Seychelles nut vessel measures: cm 42 x cm 23.5 up to the lid. The vessel is constituted by half Seychelles nut carried by a silver or silver-plated figurine with gilded hair and beard,

59Pointon, p. 15.

60Pliny, p. 165.

61 Pointon, pp. 15, 20.

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kneeling on a gilded platform. The nut is incased with silver, the upper decorations are gilded as are some details on the figures decorating the sides of the nut. Inside the Seychelles nut, a cracked pattern of an unanalyzed film is visible. If it is a protecting layer making the vessel watertight or if it is residues of a content from when the vessel has been used has not been investigated.

Image 19 Silver figurine on the lid of the Seychelles nut

vessel, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020. Image 20 Visible holes on knee and on the left side of the silver figurine, the cone shell on the right, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

Enthroned on the vessel is a figurine with gilded hair and diadem holding a shell under her right arm, supposedly a tritons shell. There is a hole on the figure’s left knee and a hole next to it; they might be traces of a missing part. In support to this, the area on the knee is worn or a residue of something is present. The figurine sits on a cushion on the platform, which

constitutes the lid of the vessel. The lid has a front decorated as a beast. Incised on the back of the lid are two Tritons blowing in shells, and two Nereids whereas one is picking up a

crayfish with a stick, all surrounded by frothy water.

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Image 21 Marine scene on the back of the vessel's lid, copyright Uppsala University Art Collection, not dated.

Image 22 Detail of the back of the vessel's lid, photo by Teresia Strömgren, 2020.

The vessel is ornamented with festoons in silver along the sides representing different kinds of shells, crayfishes and turtles in low relief. More enhanced are the four figureheads, one man and three women, placed along a cross axis. They all have gilded wings and two forked tails thus representing three Nereids and one Triton. The whole upper part of the vessel is gilded and decorated with soft wavy forms. The attachments for the corals are additionally in gilded silver. There is a clear front and back, with a pipe and a volute handle. Except from the three corals there is a cone snail shell next to the artificial shell under the figurines arm. The vessel’s platform and the lid are sealed with the city arms of Augsburg, the pine cone and a monogram, likely to be HL.

The vessel has a representational and an applicable signification. It functions as a drinking vessel, as it is not fixed to its attachment and it has a lid. When removing the lid there is a decoration on its back picking up the external decoration theme.

The Seychelles nut representational signification is the Birth of Venus. The figureheads on the vessel are compelled to represent Nereids, holding ribbons and a Triton in the rear. The wavy patterns represent thus the water and the figure on the lid Venus herself. The kneeling figure carrying the vessel on his back might imply Neptune, God of water, with the wavy pattern around his feet symbolizing the water. However, no trident is visible, though one of his attributes are the dolphin, and one dolphin appears next to the Nautilus shell, carved in orange coral (Image 8). With the marine objects as shells, crayfishes and turtles, the marine theme is established.

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According to Boström Venus is analogously a mystery flushed up on shore, as believed the Seychelles nut. It was not until 1743 the Seychelles trees were discovered at the island of Praslin and Curieuse Lodoicea seychellarum. Before then, only nuts had been flushed upon shores around the Indian Oceans, especially the Maldives. Theories of where the Seychelles nut came from is revealed by its French and English coco de mer, sea coconut.⁶²^,⁶³ Boström further associate the bodily love theme with the nut because of its form as a woman’s womb, and the colonialist connotation is expressed in its nickname cul de négresse.⁶⁴

Here, the Seychelles nut has no similarity to a woman’s womb, as Boström suggest, as it is only half of it used for the vessel. Although, the connotation might have been known. A Seychelles nut was a rare object and thus expensive. In addition, they were said to cure all illnesses and as an antidote to poison for the pulp or drinks within.⁶⁵ By using the expensive nut and silver that was a trade product to be mined in Europe or as a colonial exploit good from Peru, by the Spanish⁶⁶, the object in itself manifest an exotic expensive symbiosis of naturalia and artificialia.

The Birth of Venus myth

One of the myths explaining the Birth of Aphrodite is described in Greek poet Hesiod’s (8^th to 7^th BC) “Theogony”, with the literal meaning “the origin of the goods”.⁶⁷ In this myth Cronus cuts off the genitals of his father the Titan Uranus, and throw them in the ocean where it floated away and assembled the foam of the ocean. Within this foam of the immortal genital a maiden was born and brought by the waves to the island of Cyprus; hence, she was called Aphrodite, the goddess from the foam, as the Greek word aphrós means foam.⁶⁸The scenic embodiment of the myth, the genital in the frothy ocean, can easily be interpreted in the top decoration (Image 9). Sprung from the genital of the Sky, Uranus, she represent “girl’s whispers and smiles and deceptions, sweet pleasure and sexual love and tenderness.”⁶⁹In the

62 Boström, 2017, p. 145.

63 Koeppe, p. 54.

64 Boström, 2017, pp. 148-149.

65 Koeppe, p. 82.

66 Delbourgo, Collecting the world Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum, p. 21.

67 Richard S. Caldwell, Hesiod’s Theogony, p. 1.

68 Hesiodos, Theogoni, pp. 8-10

69 Caldwell, p. 41.

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Roman mythology Aphrodite correspond to goddess Venus, whereas the origin of the Latin word venus might derive from venenum, meaning love potion and even poison.⁷⁰

The Birth of Venus myth has been depicted through art history as a nude woman floating ashore on a shell, accompanied by symbols representing the marine world, as in the ewer and basin by Abraham Pfleger (1558-1605) in Augsburg representing Venus and Triton (Image 23).⁷¹

Image 23 Ewer and Basin, Abraham Pfleger, Kunstkammer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1590-94, triton snail, giant clam, scallop, gilded silver, photo from Koeppe, 2019.

Image 24 Detail of Ewer and basin, Venus with a scallop between her legs, photo from Koeppe, 2019.

In the ewer and basin, the sexual allusion ascribed to the shell is emphasized, positioned between Venus’s spread legs (Image 24). Shells were precious materials from the sea, believed to be spume-born as the Seychelles nut and Venus herself, and thus used as aphrodisiac and as symbols for erotic love.⁷² Here, Triton is carrying the heavy burden, corresponding to the possible Neptune’s role in the top decoration.

70 ’venenum’ Nordstedts Latinsk-svenska ordbok, 2^nd edn. Gjøvik, AiT Gjøvik, 2004, p. 916.

71 Koeppe, pp. 82-83.

72 Koeppe, p. 54.

THE CROWNING GLORY A material analysis of the top decoration of the Uppsala Augsburg Art Cabinet