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A Collector's Cabinet

May 17 – August 9, 1998
West Building, Main Floor, Dutch and Flemish Cabinet Galleries

Polidoro Lanzani, Madonna and Child and the Infant Saint John in a Landscape, 1540/1550, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.36

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: The exhibition of 193 objects recreated a 17th-century Dutch collector's cabinet, an intimately-scaled room for display of a private collection of art objects and curiosities. Included in the exhibition were Dutch, Flemish, Italian, and German paintings; bronze, ivory, and wood sculpture; Dutch and Flemish commemorative medals; antique coins and medallions; rare Chinese and European decorative arts; jewelry; glass; musical and scientific instruments; prints, drawings, and rare books; and exotic shells and coral of the type brought back by Dutch traders from the South Pacific and West Indies. Many of the paintings and works of sculpture were from the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Other lenders included the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the Walters Art Gallery, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and other museums and private collections.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque paintings at the National Gallery of Art, was the curator.

Sponsor: The exhibition was supported by the Shell Oil Company Foundation, on behalf of the employees of Shell Oil Company. The brochure was made possible by Juliet and Lee Folger/The Folger Fund.

Attendance: 233,512

Catalog: A Collector's Cabinet, by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1998.

Brochure: Collector's Cabinet. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1998.