The Luxembourg Museum, super close to our hotels, has a new exhibition on offer, organised together with the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, a collection of fifteen German museums.

The exhibition is called Mirror of the World, and shows the masterpieces collected in Dresden between the 16th and 18th century – gorgeous decorative objects, incredible scientific instruments, books, porcelain, firearms…

An unusual and wonderful collection…

The pieces on show are indicative of the obsessions of their times. Explorers were discovering new parts of the world, giving birth to instruments for navigating the globe, but their appearance was more than just perfunctory, as shown by the golden globe and richly-decorated sextants on display.

Ivory, coral and mother-of-pearl were often used as decoration, showing that anything rare and exotic was very much in fashion. Porcelain was still only manufactured in Asia, making it a fashionable and rare commodity too.

In this era, collecting such pieces showed that a person was refined and wealthy, but also had a certain power. Collecting was a strategy to impress and intimidate.

The exhibition shows these beautiful items in seven themed sections:

— Studying the world, images of the sky taken from the earth,
— The fashion for cabinets of curiosities – the quest for the rare
— Ivory, a material of global interest
— Naturalia, art and nature
— Visions of the world, and the forming of stereotypes
— Porcelain, symbol of trade between East and West
— The art of the Ottoman Empire, fashion and court festivities

In all, over 100 pieces are on show.

And lots of interesting events and activities are on offer around the exhibition:

— a cycle of conferences at the nearby cinema Les 3 Luxembourg,

— four special nights – ‘cabinet of musical curiosities’ (17th October, 14th November, 12th December and 9th January from 7-9.30pm), a musical experience with headphones that is free with your entrance ticket,

— a sketchbook evening on 15th November from 7-9pm (10€),

— for the Nuit Blanche arts event on 1st October, the museum is offering ‘a short and intense theatrical, poetic and musical voyage through the ages, with the duo CIE 44,

— a presentation of cabinets of curiosity on the French website l’Histoire par image,

— a ‘walk with sound’ that you can download on the museum’s website (also available in their smartphone app available free for iOS and Android),

— and of course guided visits, workshops…

A catalogue of the exhibition is also available (208 pages, 160 illustrations, 40€).

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The exhibition Mirror of the World (Miroir du monde – chefs-d’oeuvre du Cabinet d’art de Dresde) is at the Luxembourg Museum (here) from 13th September 2022 – 15the January 2023

Open seven days a week from 10.30am – 7pm (10pm Mondays). Closes at 6pm on 24th & 31st December

Admission: 13€ / 9€ (online sales here). 9€ for 2 people weekdays after 4pm. Free for under-16s

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