22/2/23 - Acquisition - Washington, National Gallery of Art - Explorers and merchants brought back exotic objects from their travels to grace the cabinets of curiosities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the nautilus shell, in particular, was found in both naturalia and artificialia collections, transformed into a cup or hanap. The National Gallery in Washington recently acquired a fine example from the Galerie Kunstkammer Georg Laue in Munich (ill. 1).
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- 1. Dutch and Swedish artists of the 17th century
Nautile Mounted in Cup
Engraved decoration c. 1650, mounting c. 1670
Nautilus shell, silver and vermeil - H.31 cm
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum
Photo: Stockholm, Nationalmuseum - See the image in its page
The shell is engraved with motifs of monstrous fish and fantastic birds amidst vegetation. This decoration was probably made around 1650 by an artist based in Amsterdam. It is in this city that the most talented mother-of-pearl engravers were found. The Bellekin dynasty was well known, especially Cornelis Bellekin, who invented a technique that allowed the outer layer of the shell to be removed to reveal the pearly surface underneath.
The engraved shell traveled to Sweden, where it was fitted with a silver and gilt frame around 1670. The foot is shaped like a strange mermaid, with both a fish tail and a pair of wings. Mermaids were originally half-woman half-bird in Greek mythology. Their appearance of fish-woman, which developed in the Middle Ages, would find its origin in Norse mythology. The two iconographies sometimes blended to produce hybrid creatures, like this one.
This cup formed a pair with another in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (ill. 2). While the mermaid is replaced by a standing nude figure, the rest of the frame is identical to the one in Washington. Both were in the collection of King Charles XV of Sweden in the nineteenth century, and it is possible that they were originally made for a member of the royal family.
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- 2. Dutch and Swedish artists of the 17th century
Nautile Mounted in Cup
Engraved decoration c. 1650, mounting c. 1670
Nautilus shell, silver and vermeil - H.31 cm
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum
Photo: Stockholm, Nationalmuseum - See the image in its page
Several nautiluses transformed into cups can be seen in French public collections, at Écouen or even at the Louvre, which more particularly preserves a piece decorated by Cornelis Bellekin: engraved on its two sides with mythological scenes, it displays on the back a floral decoration in relief, which uses the naturally colored surface of the nautilus, like the Washington cup.