Existing comment:
Ewer and basin
1590-1594
Abraham Pfleger I
For early modern scholars, the hard shells of soft-bodied mollusks bridged two realms of nature: the perishable animal and the enduring mineral. Despite the beauty of their homes, mollusks were confined to their hard shells and the burden of carrying them. The artist suggests this duality with the Janus-headed figures at the corners of this basin (the hair on the back of each head forms a lionlike face). The shell between the spread fish tails probably alludes to the presumed aphrodisiac effect of eating shellfish. |