"The Cabinet of Curiosities" by Constantin Tinteanu

The result of research spread over several years, the book of the cabinet of curiosities is arranged in ten chapters, of which I would single out: The historical avant-garde and the cabinet of curiosities; André Breton's art collection and library; Constantin Brâncuși's Écorché; Ion Grigorescu and the cabinet of curiosities; Artists' studios; The dissecting room. Taxidermy. Memento mori; The conversation of frames; Fragmentarium. These are chapters in which we meet artists, collectors, scholars, explorers, adventurers, writers, taxidermists, anatomists, grave robbers (resurrectionists), merchants, politicians, cabinetmakers, prelates, alchemists, missionaries, doctors and travellers. And many, many others, all of them players on the stage of the Theatre of the World, a stage on which man placed himself at the centre of the Universe in his moving endeavour to emulate God and to remake the Great Creation to his own measure. In bringing the cabinet into the Romanian sphere and into the present, I have worked with artists interested in this theme, among whom I would mention in particular Ion Grigorescu, Bogdan Vlăduță, Christian Paraschiv, Matei Lăzărescu, Mihai Sârbulescu, Florina Coulin, Florentina Voichi and Ana Petrovici-Popescu.