Authors
Shannon R. Zeltmann '21, Gettysburg College
Document Type
Student Research Paper
Publication Date
Fall 2017
Department 1
Art
Abstract
Minerals were displayed in wonder rooms for their beauty and used by apothecaries for their medical properties and artists, for sculptures and pigments. Minerals during the Renaissance were collected and displayed in wonder rooms to illustrate the beauty of nature. Humanists would have categorized minerals by their external qualities- color, transparency, form, luster, and smell. Over time, geologists continue to study these external qualities when they are first analyzing minerals, and the internal properties. Today the six major factors in identifying minerals are cleavage, the tendency of minerals to break into flat surfaces; color; crystal form or how the form of the mineral changes as the mineral crystallizes; hardness, the resistance to scratching to measure its strength; luster, the light reflection; and streak, the color of the streak left when a mineral is grinded on porcelain. [excerpt]
Streaming Media
Additional Streaming Media
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Zeltmann, Shannon R., "Quartz and Prehnite: Minerals during the Renaissance" (2017). Wonders of Nature and Artifice. 8.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/wonders_exhibit/8
Included in
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Fine Arts Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Industrial and Product Design Commons, Intellectual History Commons
Comments
Produced as part of a collaboration between Kay Etheridge's course FYS-188: Exploration of the Marvelous: Art and Science in the Renaissance, and Felicia Else's course ARTH 284: Wonders of Nature and Artifice: The Renaissance Quest for Knowledge.
Original version online at http://wonder-cabinet.sites.gettysburg.edu/2017/cabinet/ethiopian-scrolls/
Includes audio guides for the quartz and prehnite samples.