Cue the Renaissance and search nature's bounty for forms of neoclassical symmetry that seem to convey in their very substance the harmoniousness of a natural order inherited from but not stopped at divinity. Through artifice, raise the humble finds to the height of human creation, and claim the bounty of the sea is within human dominion, within the grasp of a drinker of ocean worlds. And so beget the nautilus cup.
In the early modern period, German goldsmiths were renowned for their cups, whether they were of silver, gilt silver, or gold, made wholly of metal in various shapes (bells, animals, goblets, pears, crowns, castles, ships) or combined with natural materials. The pearlescent chambered nautilus shell (polished to enhance the shine) was a favored natural material for inclusion, as the shell formed a near perfect equiangular spiral. So too were ostrich egg shells and coconut shells (these last cups are featured separately in Dream Tree's wunderkammer).
The Heritage Museum curator writes, "The 16th century was truly the golden age of German art of goldsmithery. One of its principal centers was Nuremberg, a free imperial city lying at the crossroads of major commercial thoroughfares. Albrecht Dürer's birthplace, it was a center of Renaissance culture. Especially remarkable in the variety of German silverware of the 16th-17th centuries are drinking vessels. The most characteristic of them were lobing cups, double or with covers. One of the favorite forms of lobing vessels were cover cups in the form of aquilegia flower, Ageleybecher. By the 1480s, lobing cups gained wide currency, and German masters were unequaled in their creation.
Dürer's first designs of silverware inaugurated in German art of goldsmithery motifs taken from nature such as frogs, snails, snakes and lizards cast with the use of live models; the rustique style thus entered the German silversmith's art. These figurines were to surprise the onlooker with their bizarre and beautiful appearance. Another aspect of the rustique style was the use of natural shells or their imitations from semiprecious stones or metals, ostrich eggs, narwhal teeth and coconut shells to fabricate cups, bowls and other vessels for purely decorative purposes. Since early Middle Ages, works from these materials had a symbolic meaning and were regarded as something mysterious. For example, ostrich egg were believed to be laid by Phoenix and narwhal teeth were taken to be horns of the mythical Unicorn as late as the 18th century."
German Renaissance masterwork of Heinrich Jonas (Nuremburg) For a 3-D view of this cup, see the Heritage Museum online exhibit.
German, gilt silver, 1620
French (carved shell), 1830
Joachim Hiller, 1600
Johann Georg Hainz, Still Life with Nautilus Cup, 1700
In the early modern period, German goldsmiths were renowned for their cups, whether they were of silver, gilt silver, or gold, made wholly of metal in various shapes (bells, animals, goblets, pears, crowns, castles, ships) or combined with natural materials. The pearlescent chambered nautilus shell (polished to enhance the shine) was a favored natural material for inclusion, as the shell formed a near perfect equiangular spiral. So too were ostrich egg shells and coconut shells (these last cups are featured separately in Dream Tree's wunderkammer).
The Heritage Museum curator writes, "The 16th century was truly the golden age of German art of goldsmithery. One of its principal centers was Nuremberg, a free imperial city lying at the crossroads of major commercial thoroughfares. Albrecht Dürer's birthplace, it was a center of Renaissance culture. Especially remarkable in the variety of German silverware of the 16th-17th centuries are drinking vessels. The most characteristic of them were lobing cups, double or with covers. One of the favorite forms of lobing vessels were cover cups in the form of aquilegia flower, Ageleybecher. By the 1480s, lobing cups gained wide currency, and German masters were unequaled in their creation.
Dürer's first designs of silverware inaugurated in German art of goldsmithery motifs taken from nature such as frogs, snails, snakes and lizards cast with the use of live models; the rustique style thus entered the German silversmith's art. These figurines were to surprise the onlooker with their bizarre and beautiful appearance. Another aspect of the rustique style was the use of natural shells or their imitations from semiprecious stones or metals, ostrich eggs, narwhal teeth and coconut shells to fabricate cups, bowls and other vessels for purely decorative purposes. Since early Middle Ages, works from these materials had a symbolic meaning and were regarded as something mysterious. For example, ostrich egg were believed to be laid by Phoenix and narwhal teeth were taken to be horns of the mythical Unicorn as late as the 18th century."
German Renaissance masterwork of Heinrich Jonas (Nuremburg) For a 3-D view of this cup, see the Heritage Museum online exhibit.
German, gilt silver, 1620
French (carved shell), 1830
Joachim Hiller, 1600
Johann Georg Hainz, Still Life with Nautilus Cup, 1700
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