lustrate the wealth of the Austrian Empire’s new
possessions and of the Habsburg monarchy’s
reach across the world.
In 1806, Austria’s Emperor Francis I (1768–
1835) had the Ambras collection moved to Vienna
to protect it from the ravages of the Napoleonic
wars. The same year, he fi nanced the
acquisition of 200 Oceanic and North American
objects that had been collected by British Captain
James Cook (1728–1779) when the former
Leverian Museum in London sold its holdings.
This included featherwork objects from Hawaii,
among them an effi gy of Ku, or Ku-ka-ili-moku,
the god of war (fi g. 4), as well as an important
portrait mask from British Columbia (fi g. 6).
Together Ambras and Leverian material formed
a fi rm foundation for an ethnographic collection
in Vienna.
Subsequent expeditions enriched the Viennese
ethnographic collection. Austria’s conquest of international
networks resulted from an imperialistic
and commercial policy, especially in Mexico
and Brazil, which were underpinned by the great
naval expeditions of the end of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. All of these voyages engaged
in the negotiations of commercial trade treaties
and perfectly illustrate the pursuit of geopolitical
interests by a major European power that had no
overseas colonies but nonetheless wanted to secure
a role for itself among colonial nations that did.
85
HIGHLIGHTS OF A
LONG MUSEUM HISTORY
The beginnings of the Weltmuseum’s ethnographic
collection date back to the sixteenth century.
The fi rst relevant written evidence of non-European
objects is in a 1596 inventory of Archduke
Ferdinand II (1529–1595) of Tyrol’s Kunstkammer
(cabinet of curiosities) at Schloss Ambras
in Innsbruck. Mention is made of Pre-Hispanic
and colonial-period featherwork objects (fi gs. 1
and 2), including the now famous feather headdress
called “Penacho” (fi g. 3), which researchers
consider to be that of a major Aztec priest and
the only one of its kind to have survived. It also
references Luso-African ivory sculptures manufactured
for European buyers in Sierra Leone and
on the Benin coast in the sixteenth century. In
keeping with the period’s taxonomic approach,
the Kunstkammer collection was intended to il-
FiG. 5 (left): temple model,
hale waiea. Hawaii. Before
1779.
Feathers of the Hawaiian
honeycreeper, tortoise shell, aerial
roots of the ‘ie’ie plant (Freycinetia
arborea), vegetal fi ber. H: 59 cm.
Collected by James Cook.
Weltmuseum Wien, inv. 203.
FiG. 3 (above left):
Headdress (known as
“penacho”). Aztec, central
mexico. early 16th century.
Feathers of the resplendent quetzal,
cotinga, roseate spoonbill, squirrel
cuckoo, kingfi sher; wood, fi ber, paper,
cotton, leather, gold, gilded bronze.
H: 116 cm.
ex schloss Ambras.
Weltmuseum Wien, inv. 10.402.
FiG. 4 (above): effi gy of a
deity, ki´i hulu manu. Hawaii.
Before 1776.
Feathers, aerial roots, mother-of-pearl,
wood, dog teeth, vegetal fi bers.
H: 56 cm.
Collected by James Cook.
Weltmuseum Wien, inv. 202.