What Is a Kabinettschrank?

It was expensive, ornate, and a mouthful to pronounce

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An ornate wooden cabinet. Its open doors reveal smaller drawers in the cabinet's interior

Display Cabinet (Kabinettschrank), about 1630, Dutch. Ebony and other tropical and European woods, porphyry, gemstones, marble, pewter, ivory, bone, tortoiseshell, enamel, mirror glass, brass, and painted stone, 28 3/4 × 22 13/16 × 23 1/4 in. Getty Museum, 89.DA.28

By Meg Butler

Jul 13, 2023

How do you describe a work of art?

With art terms, of course! We’ve heard your questions about works of art at Getty, and we’re here to answer your Frequently Asked Art Questions (FAAQs).

Let’s take a look at a Kabinettschrank, one of the most detailed storage units in Getty’s collection, and a wonderful example of this art term.

Watch the video, or read on below!

Kabinettschrank is German for “cabinet cupboard,” the perfect redundancy for a cupboard comprised of smaller cupboards.

If you walk around the Kabinettschrank in the Getty Center Museum’s North Pavilion, (or check it out online), you’ll see that unlike your average kitchen cabinet, this 17th-century ornamental example opens on all four sides.

And behind each cabinet door is a work of miniature art.

  • A small, ornately-decorated cabinet. It's two front doors are closed and decorated with marble of various colors

    The front of the kabinettschrank. Its doors open to reveal a miniature entryway, inlaid with tortoiseshell

  • A small, ornately-decorated cabinet. It's two doors are open, revealing wood carvings and many small drawers and doors
  • An ornate wooden cabinet. Its open doors reveal smaller drawers in the cabinet's interior
  • A detailed look at a miniature entryway inside a kabinettschrank. The tiny doors are made with tortoiseshell. The floor has tiles of various colorful materials
  • A detailed look at a miniature entryway inside a kabinettschrank. The tiny doors are made with tortoiseshell. The floor has tiles of various colorful materials
  • A detailed look at a miniature entryway inside a kabinettschrank. The tiny doors are made with tortoiseshell. The floor has tiles of various colorful materials

There are smaller doors behind doors, miniature entranceways, and tiny doorknobs …

  • A wooden cabinet drawer with a tiny oil portrait of a group of seated people in robes of various colors

    Paintings on the drawers of the front of the kabinettschrank

  • A wooden cabinet drawer with a tiny, oval painting of people kneeling and praying in a field at night. An angel above them holds out a golden goblet
  • A wooden cabinet drawer with a painting of men working in a field
  • A wooden cabinet drawer with a tiny, oval painting of a man tied to a column

Petite paintings with an impressive amount of detail …

A miniature carved portrait of a man. The text around him reads "Hans Christof Bach 1527"

A carving found on the right side of the kabinettschrank

A tiny, colorful, oval painting of a pale woman in a blue dress with ornately-styled hair

A portrait found on the right side of the kabinettschrank

Lilliputian portraits…

  • The right side of a kabinettschrank. Its two front doors are closed, and inlaid with colorful marble

    The right side of the kabinettschrank. Its doors open to reveal many compartments decorated with wood carvings

  • The right side of a kabinettschrank. Its red velvet-lined front panel is open revealing many small doors and drawers.
  • A small wood carving of a woman riding a man like a horse while wielding a whip
  • A small wood carving of a woman cutting a man's hair with a knife
  • A small wood carving of a naked woman embracing a bear in the woods
  • A small wood carving of a man on a horse speaking to a standing man

And wee wood carvings that tell allegorical, historical, and mythological stories.

These varied forms of adornment were created by some of the most famous artists of their day. Think an Eames, decorated by Banksy, with Takashi Murakami flowers. All of it bespoke, and crafted with rare, hard-to-source materials.

  • The left side of a kabinettscrhank. Its doors are closed and inlaid with marble

    The left side of the kabinettschrank. A false door contains a display for jewelry. The main door opens to reveal many compartments decorated with wood carvings

  • The false front panel in the right side of a kabinettschrank folded open to reveal a velvet-backed mount displaying nine gold pieces and rings
  • The right side of a kabinettschrank. An open door reveals richly-decorated drawers and panels beneath
  • The right side of a kabinettschrank. An open door reveals richly-decorated drawers and panels beneath

If, during the 17th and 18th centuries when Kabinettschränke were in vogue, you saw one of these in someone’s parlor, you knew they were a person of means. And what they kept inside the cabinet would be just as cool: jewelry, curios collected from around the world, and even more precious items stored in the Kabinettschrank’s hidden compartments.

If you had your own Kabinettschrank, what would you put in it?

What other art terms or paintings are you curious about? Let us know on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or email us at stories@getty.edu.

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