Summer Spectacular 2025, including Cabinet of Curiosities, now fully available!
Robert (in his informal attire), in our Cabinet of Curiosities
aka Johan Joseph Zoffany, The Tribuna of the Uffizi, 1772 x 1777
Windsor, Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection, RCIN 406983
Image here via: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johan_Zoffany_-_Tribuna_of_the_Uffizi_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Many thanks indeed to those of you who have said such kind things about the first tranche of our Roman Holiday offerings.*
*[aka: Our 2025 Summer Spectacular]
Encouraged by this positive feedback on our theme, we are delighted to announce the final ‘stops’ on this summer’s Roman-themed tour.
[…Are we interpreting the theme both thematically and geographically? Yup!
…Are we occasionally being a little free with our interpretation? We-elll… maybe… <innocent face>]
Regardless, we hope that our theme - however loosely interpreted - will have something for everyone!
First up… we’ve touched, from various entry-points over the last few years, on the linchpin of a wealthy young gentlemen’s transition into adulthood in the long eighteenth century (not least as the theme of our 2024 Summer Spectacular), so we’re thrilled to finally be able to devote an oft-requested Short & Sweet course (it was but a matter of time!)…
Next up, we have the next of our ongoing series of courses which focus on the reigns of Roman emperors chronologically …
…And then, we offer unto you the opportunity to travel with tourists of the Roman Empire (because yes - we know many of you love your Classics!), courtesy of someone who isn’t, perhaps, a household name today, but in our opinion, he jolly well should be, so…
Additionally, I’m delighted to announce that we are opening a new ‘area’ of our Cabinet of Curiosities (i.e. our archive of recordings).*
This time, we are offering our online courses from 2023.
Johan Joseph Zoffany, The Tribuna of the Uffizi, 1772 x 1777
Windsor, Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection, RCIN 406983
Image here via: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johan_Zoffany_-_Tribuna_of_the_Uffizi_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
We’ve pulled all twenty-eight of them (I know… TWENTY-EIGHT!!) from our archive shelves, so they are available for you to enjoy at your leisure right away or over the summer. All recordings will be available until 21 September 2025.
Not with us way back then? With us then but did other courses instead and fancy something we’ve not yet repeated? Wanted to do something this term but couldn’t fit it in? …Well here you go!
NB Two quick practicalities.
First, as a reminder in case you’ve not yet viewed one of our recordings: Q&A/discussion elements are edited out, for data protection reasons. What remains is a full set of Robertian Pearls of Wisdom (TM) on your chosen subject[s].
Secondly, do, of course, ignore the original dates on each course details page. Your recordings will be available as soon as we’ve sent confirmation of your registration.
To see a list of all archive courses now available, click here, then follow the links for details of content, duration, and access fee for any course[s] in which you are interested.
Frans Francken the Younger, Kunst- und Raritätenkammer, 1620 X 1625
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, 1048
Image here via: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_Francken_(II),_Kunst-_und_Rarit%C3%A4tenkammer_(1636).jpg
* A diversion, for them as may be interested…
Some of you will already be familiar with the concept of Cabinets of Curiosities (also known as Kunstkammern: ‘wonder-rooms’) - indeed some of you will have encountered them along the way during our courses over the years. For those of you yet to be acquainted with these marvellous (and I use the term advisedly!) phenomena… they are essentially collections of weird and wonderful objects and treasures, which were eagerly collected and curated by enquiring minds (and/or those who wanted to be seen as having enquiring minds) from the Renaissance on. They might be a rigorously sourced collection of natural history artefacts (some of which were not necessarily entirely authentic [think: unicorns’ horns, mermaids, and dragons’ eggs]), antique coins and classical sculpture, manuscripts and paintings, relics, or an eclectic mix of all of the above. Some collectors amassed them for personal scientific and artistic research purposes; others because they enjoyed showing them off and eliciting curiosity and wonder in their guests; others still because, more pragmatically, they were sine qua non for a wealthy, educated gentleman.
Some cabinets ended up being the foundation collection of a museum - vide, to name but a few of the more famous examples, the Ashmolean, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Grünes Gewölbe.
But cabinets are not simply a relic of the past (pun intended), safely squirrelled away for a Sunday family museum visit. The not-always-entirely-ethical provenance of the original cabinets’ pieces can have profoundly controversial repercussions for these museums (see, for example, the ethical issues for medical history collections), and the model can even provide a ‘thinking space’ for exploring the potential ethical issues inherent in museum collections’ legacies of colonial acquisition.
Engraving from Ferrante Imperato, Dell’ historia naturale, 1599
Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Houghton Library, Typ 525.99.461
They are also still very much au courant in certain circles, at various scales, and auction houses regularly offer sales of ‘cabinets’ curated from their collections as well as whole cabinets of specific collectors. (Incidentally, those of you who enjoyed the crocodile in the illustration we used for last year’s Cabinet of Curiosities may be amused to know that even Cabinet Crocodiles still come on the market to this day, so do keep your eyes peeled should that be your thing!).
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Image: Hufton Crow, via https://www.livingetc.com/news/victoria-and-albert-east-storehouse
You can now even curate your very own ‘cabinet’ (albeit temporarily!), courtesy of the exciting new initiative at the V&A. Some of you may even have done this already! But if not and you’d like to find out more, see, e.g., here and here for reviews.
Anyway, here endeth the diversion…!
The TL;DR (too long; didn't read) version: Cabinets of Curiosities are fun. And we like to think that ours offers a suitably eclectic mix of entertainment, edification, and enjoyment!
We hope that you’re as excited about our Summer Spectacular as we are!
To see all of our currently-available courses in calendar order, click here.