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'Palace of Wonders' is royally intriguing

The new permanent exhibit, 'Palace of Wonders' at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, is a showcase of Baroque and Renaissance art

Date published: 5/11/2006

By SHEILA WICKOUSKI

For THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Are you a pack rat? You are in good company and share a long and honorable history.

From cavemen to tycoons, humans have always collected objects. From the scientific studies of the early Greeks to the statue collections of the Romans to medieval churches and Renaissance palaces--in almost every culture and time, nobles, scholars and churchmen have collected things.

With new geographic discoveries and increased wealth, the scientific interests of 17th-century Europeans expanded to include not only precious material but objects of natural history. By the 18th century, what once graced only private collections was made available to the public when the British Museum and the Louvre (with Napoleon's spoils) were established as public institutions.

If you've ever wondered how an old private museum might have looked, the Walters Art Museum's re-installment includes three galleries that re-create the experience of visiting one as an imaginary Flemish nobleman in the Southern Netherlands in the 1600s.

The palazzo-like structure of the four-story Walters building is itself a treat and the entry into a fantastic world.

From here, one enters The Hall of Arms and Armory, with its collection of masculine virtue and power arranged with panache as befitting the imaginary nobleman's identity with the Hapsburg royalty.

The main attraction, Chamber of Wonders, is filled with intriguing things that excite the curiosity of young and old alike. Manmade and natural objects (dried rattle snakes, a stuffed alligator, a "unicorn skull"), as well as treasures from America, Asia and Africa, are arranged in cabinets and categorized--an encyclopedia of nature and human ingenuity.

Amazement and delight abound in the discovery of how many odd things exist, and have been saved and categorized. Also astonishing is that the room feels brand new--the result of the delicate ways in which the museum conservators have preserved and presented these treasures.

A snapshot of such an exotic room appears in the 17th-century painting "The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting a Collector's Cabinet." It looks as though the Walters has reconstructed the room in fine detail except for the inclusion of the live birds and animals that roam about freely in the painting.

WHAT: 'Palace of Wonders: The New Galleries of Renaissance and Baroque Art,' a permanent exhibit WHERE: The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St. (Mount Vernon Cultural District), Baltimore WHEN: Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, as well as Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. COST: Adults $10, seniors 65 and older $8, college students ages 18 to 25 with ID and children under 6 admitted free. INFO: 410/547-9000, thewalters.org INFO: Free admission to the permanent collections is offered on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to noon, and all day on the first Thursday of each month.

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Date published: 5/11/2006