Joseph Arnold, The Kunstkammer of the Dimpfels, a Family of Ironmongers and Traders from Regensburg (1668)

This miniature by artist Joseph Arnold shows the Kunstkammer (cabinet of art objects and curiosities) of the Dimpfels, a Regensburg merchant family. It is one of the few existing contemporary depictions of a seventeenth-century burgher’s collection. The room is filled with diverse objects—clocks, statues, porcelain, paintings, globes, scientific instruments, armor, books, religious symbols, seashells, and human skulls—displayed on tables, in cabinets, and on the walls. The objects served to demonstrate the family’s wealth and power.