Page 128 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

turned into a drinking vessel by the addition of a
fluted stem with a hexafoiled embossed foot. The
shell (Dolium galea) has deep whorls giving a rich
surface texture, with clearly defined growth rings
and a large siphon. The species is found in a wide
geographical area, including the Mediterranean
and the Indian Ocean.
The systematic collection of exotic shells seems
to have begun in the Renaissance. Diirer bought
a number of shells during his trip to the Nether-
lands in 1520-1521, but it seems to have been
Erasmus who assembled the first real collection,
probably for scholarly reasons; this was certainly
the motivation of their younger contemporary,
the Swiss zoologist Conrad Gesner (for the early
collecting of shells, see Coomans 1985). The shell
cup from Florence, like the drinking horn and
ostrich egg jug also in the Museo degli Argenti
(cats. 8, 10), was originally in the Hochertzstuft-
liche Silberkammer in the palace of the prince-
archbishops of Salzburg. This collection of pre-
cious objects was dispersed in 1805, two years
after the secularization of religious institutions in
Salzburg. In the 1586 inventory of the treasury,
the shell cup is described as a mounted seashell
("Ain grosser Marschnegg mit ainem silberver-
gulten Fuess und vergoldter Khlaidung").
J.M.M.

This horn, which appears to be that of a 9
European bison (Bison bonasus), is beautifully
mounted on a gilt eagle with long, finely incised Nuremberg craftsman
wings. The horn is elegantly set with bands; on its SHELL CUP
tip is a pelican nourishing its young from its own
breast. This was thought by Pliny and many writ- c. 1480
ers after him to be characteristic behavior of the silver, partly gilt, and shell
5
animal —a misunderstanding of the bird's habit of height 22 (8 / 8)
regurgitating the fish it had caught to feed its references: Rossacher 1966, 11, 130, no. 33, pi. 13;
chicks. In the Middle Ages, the pelican's "self-sac- Kohlhaussen 1968, 155, 159, no. 244; Hernmarck
Fritz
160;
1977, in, fig.
1982, 307, no. 870,
rifice" was taken as an image or type of Christ's fig. 8yo; Loomans 1985
Passion. Yet the presence of the pelican on this
drinking horn does not necessarily suggest a litur- Museo degli Argenti, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
gical function for the vessel. Most such horns
were used in a secular context, especially as lux- Mounted by an anonymous silversmith from
urious drinking vessels at banquets. j. M. M. Nuremberg around 1480, this dolium has been

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 127