Cabinet (room)
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| - | A '''cabinet painting''' (or "cabinet picture") is a small [[painting]], typically no larger than about two feet in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used of paintings that show full-length figures at a small scale, as opposed to say a head painted nearly life-size, and that are painted very precisely, with a great degree of "finish". From the fifteenth century onwards wealthy collectors of art would keep such paintings in a [[Cabinet (room)|cabinet]], a relatively small and [[private room]] (often very small indeed, even in a very large house), to which only those with whom they were on especially inimate terms would be admitted. | + | Such a room might be used as a study or office, or just a sitting room. Heating the main rooms in large palaces or mansions in the winter was difficult, and small rooms were more comfortable. They also offered more privacy from servants, other household members, and visitors. Typically such a room would be for the use of a single individual, so that a house might have at least two (his and hers) and often more. Names varied: cabinet, closet, study (from the Italian studiolo), office, and a range of more specifically female equivalents, such as a [[boudoir]]. |
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| - | This room might be used as a study or office, or just a sitting room. Heating the main rooms in large palaces or mansions in the winter was difficult, and small rooms were more comfortable. They also offered more privacy from servants or other household members or visitors. Typically such a room would be for the use of a single individual, so that a house might have at least two (his and hers) and often more. Names varied: cabinet, closet, study (from the Italian studiolo), office and others. | + | |
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| - | Later such paintings might be housed in a display case, which might also be called a [[cabinet (furniture)|cabinet]], but the term cabinet arose from the name (originally in Italian) of the room, not the piece of furniture. Other small precious objects, including [[miniature]] paintings, "curiosities" of all sorts (see [[cabinet of curiosities]]), [[old master print]]s, books, small sculptures and so on, might also be in the room. | + | |
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| - | There is a rare surviving cabinet with its contents probably little changed since the early eighteenth century at [[Ham House, Richmond]] outside London. It is less than ten feet square, and leads off from the Long Gallery, which is well over a hundred feet long by about twenty wide, giving a rather startling change in scale and atmosphere. As is often the case, it has an excellent view of the front entrance to the house, so that comings and going can be observed. Most surving large houses or palaces, especially from before 1700, have such rooms, but they are very often not displayed to visitors. | + | |
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| - | The magnificent [[Mannerist]] [[Studiolo of Francesco I]] Medici in [[Florence]] is rather larger than most examples, and rather untypical in that most of the paintings were commissioned for the room. | + | |
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| - | There was an equivalent type of small sculpture, usually [[bronze]]s, of which the leading exponent in the late Renaissance was [[Giambologna]] who produced sizeable editions of reduced versions of his large works, and also made many only in small-scale. These were designed to be picked up and handled, even fondled. Small [[antiquities]] were also very commonly displayed in such rooms, including coins. | + | |
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| - | Small paintings have been produced at all periods of Western art, but some periods and artists are especially noticeable for them. [[Raphael]] produced many cabinet paintings, and all the paintings of the important German artist [[Adam Elsheimer]] (1578-1610) could be so described. The works of these two were much copied. The Dutch artists of the seventeenth century had an enormous output of small paintings. The painters of the [[Leiden]] School were especially noted "fijnschilders" - that is "fine painters" producing highly finished small works. [[Watteau]], [[Fragonard]] and other French 18th century artists produced many small works, generally emphasizing spirit and athmosphere rather than a detailed finish. The term is not as common as it was in the 19th century, but remains in use among art historians. | + | |
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| - | A "cabinet miniature" is a larger [[portrait miniature]], usually full-length and typically up to about ten inches high. These were first painted in England, from the end of the 1580s, initially by [[Nicholas Hilliard]] and [[Isaac Oliver]]. | + | |
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| - | In 1991 an exhibition ''''Cabinet Painting'''' toured London, [[Hove Museum and Art Gallery]] and [[Glynn Vivian Art Gallery |Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum]], Swansea. It including more than sixty cabinet paintings by contemporary artists. | + | |
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Revision as of 00:42, 26 December 2009
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Such a room might be used as a study or office, or just a sitting room. Heating the main rooms in large palaces or mansions in the winter was difficult, and small rooms were more comfortable. They also offered more privacy from servants, other household members, and visitors. Typically such a room would be for the use of a single individual, so that a house might have at least two (his and hers) and often more. Names varied: cabinet, closet, study (from the Italian studiolo), office, and a range of more specifically female equivalents, such as a boudoir.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Cabinet (room)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
