Cabinet of Curiosities: Religious Relics, Curiosa and Rare Objects
The cabinet of curiosities, also known as the Wunderkammer, originated during the Renaissance as a space dedicated to the study, contemplation and classification of the world. These early collections brought together natural specimens, works of art, scientific instruments and spiritual objects, forming an intellectual framework through which collectors sought to understand both the visible and the invisible.
- What Is a Cabinet of Curiosities? Origin and Definition
- History of cabinets of curiosities (Renaissance – 18th century)
- Religious objects and relics in learned collections
- Curiosa, rare objects, and marginal forms of knowledge
- Wunderkammer and European encyclopedic collections
- From the cabinet of curiosities to the modern museum
- Contemporary cabinets of curiosities and private collections
Origins and purpose of the cabinet of curiosities
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, scholars, clerics, scientists and princes assembled cabinets of curiosities as learned collections rather than decorative displays. These cabinets combined religious relics, ancient artefacts, natural wonders, artworks and scientific instruments within an encyclopaedic vision that reflected the intellectual and spiritual concerns of their time.
Far from being mere accumulations of oddities, cabinets of curiosities represented an attempt to organise knowledge, to give meaning to the diversity of creation and to establish connections between faith, science and symbolism.
Religious objects and relics in early collections
Ancient religious objects occupied a central place in many historical cabinets of curiosities. Christian relics, reliquaries, devotional objects and sacred images were regarded as material witnesses to spiritual realities and as tangible links between the earthly and the divine.
These objects were not collected for their strangeness alone, but for their symbolic power, their historical significance and their role within a broader theological and metaphysical understanding of the world.
Curiosa, artefacts and the margins of knowledge
Alongside religious relics, cabinets of curiosities included curiosa: unusual artefacts, esoteric objects, instruments associated with occult sciences and symbolic or demonological representations. Such items reflected a fascination with the boundaries of knowledge, where science, mysticism and imagination converged.
Religious and esoteric engravings, particularly from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, played a crucial role in visually transmitting these ideas, offering a rich iconography that combined faith, allegory and symbolic interpretation.
From historical cabinets to contemporary collections
Although historical cabinets of curiosities gradually gave way to modern museums, their spirit endures in private collections, cultural institutions and contemporary curatorial practices. Today, a cabinet of curiosities is no longer defined by encyclopaedic ambition, but by coherence, documentation and historical accuracy.
Provenance, dating, symbolic consistency and respect for the original function of each object are now essential criteria in the constitution of serious collections.
RELICS and the cabinet of curiosities tradition
RELICS positions itself within this scholarly tradition of the cabinet of curiosities by offering a carefully curated selection of ancient Christian relics, reliquaries, curiosa and rare objects of strong symbolic and historical value. Each piece is selected for its authenticity, cultural coherence and relevance within a historically grounded collection.
RELICS addresses experienced collectors, art historians, curators and informed enthusiasts seeking to build or enrich cabinets of curiosities that remain faithful to their intellectual and spiritual heritage.
To create a cabinet of curiosities today is to engage in a tradition of knowledge, discernment and transmission, where each object serves as a witness to history and a bearer of meaning.
For a comprehensive and well-documented study of the history of cabinets of curiosities, we invite you to consult our article dedicated to this subject.
