Goethe’s Majolica Cabinets and the Importance of the Biography of Object Accessories

Abstract

When he visited Johann Wolfgang Goethe for the first time in 1821, Carl Gustav Carus, a natural scientist and artist of the time, was impressed by the wealth of displayed artwork at the home of the famous author: When I was left alone in the room for a short time, the arrangements and embellishments were remarkable to me. Except for a tall frame with huge folders for copperplate engravings in their historical sequence, I was interested in a cabinet furnished with drawers for the storage of a coin collection. The essence of this was, under glass, a considerable quantity of ancient pictures of deities, larvae, faunas, etc., among which a very small golden Napoleon, placed in the bell-shaped end of a barometer tube, looked strange enough. Yet, many more things were still to be observed.