Peeping as Artful Inquiry: A Seventeenth-Century Dutch Perspective Box in the Royal Danish Kunstkammer

• In Event: Cabinetization and Compartmentalization in Early Modern Art and Science II

Abstract

In 1674, King Frederick III of Denmark acquired five Dutch perspective boxes to be housed in the newly renovated Royal Danish Kunstkammer, three of which are extant. The boxes were exhibited in the so-called “perspective chamber”: a room devoted to illusionistic art forms such as anamorphic mirrors, optical instruments, and trompe l’oeil paintings. In this paper I propose that the perspective box’s deceptive appeal prompted inquiry into the mathematical mechanisms enacted within and encouraged spectators to draw connections with other scientific diversions on display in the chamber. What is more, I will speculate as to the role of the cut-out paper figurines that have been glued on to one of the box’s interior panels. I argue that this particular box may have functioned like a dollhouse, where the client worked in partnership with the artist to personalize the space as a mirror of his/her home.

Author

• Justina Spencer, University of Ottawa