One of the greatest works of furniture in the Art Institute’s collection holds many secrets in its endless drawers. Part medicine cabinet, part writing desk and filing cabinet, and part safe-deposit box, this ornate 17th-century tabletop cabinet from the South German city of Augsburg may have contained everything from jewelry, gems, and important papers to hammers, scissors, and even an ear scoop.
In preparation for its display in the newly renovated Eloise W. Martin Galleries, the curatorial and conservation teams rethought not only its presentation but also its configuration. For over fifty years rare pieces of hardware and the contents of its drawers were misunderstood and kept in storage. After careful study, these elements have been reunited with the cabinet and are now on view alongside its once-hidden interiors.
Join curator Jonathan Tavares and conservator Lisa Ackerman as they discuss this curious cabinet and the conservation efforts that uncovered its hidden history.
About the Speakers
Jonathan Tavares is the Amy and Paul Carbone Curator in Applied Arts of Europe at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is an early modern decorative arts, arms, and armor scholar with a PhD from the Bard Graduate Center. Jonathan is responsible for curating the arms and armor galleries, part of the Deering Family Galleries of Medieval and Renaissance Art, which opened in 2017. His purview includes medieval to Baroque applied arts, and he has published numerous articles on 16th-century arms and armor and its manufacture and connection to print culture, most recently in the journal West 86th with “Bloomery Iron, Steel, and the Interdisciplinary Search for an Early Modern Armor Industry.”
Lisa Ackerman is an associate conservator of objects at the Art Institute of Chicago where she is focused on wooden architectural elements, furniture, European decorative arts, and the arts of Asia. She joined the Art Institute as a two-year project conservator, restoring a late-17th-century Gibbons overmantel and has stayed on permanently. She received her M.A./C.A.S. in Art Conservation from Buffalo State University and completed the ICCROM International Course on Wood Conservation Technology in Oslo, Norway. Lisa has held internships at the Met, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum. She has been employed by the Met, the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and private furniture conservation firms in New York, NY.
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