Conchophilia by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2021-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

FIG. 70. Johann Walther, Interior of Count Johannes of Nassau’s grotto at Idstein, c. 1650–1670. Watercolor on paper. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

Once Philippi and Van Hulsen’s shells were prepared, they could find their place in the grotto. They might be placed individually within the space or broken up and embedded within the walls. The shells would have been brightly colored rather than the muted tones seen now in surviving early modern grottoes. Johann Walther of Strasburg’s depiction of the grotto at Idstein in Germany, belonging to Count Johannes of Nassau, demonstrates just how colorful the experience of entering a grotto could be (fig. 70). So bright were the colors of shells in a grotto in Utrecht that Thomas Goldney II visited during a tour of Europe in 1725 that he first thought its ceiling designs were painted.43 However, Furttenbach hinted at the limitations involved in sourcing certain types of shells; he advised that not everybody might be able to find mother-of-pearl shells, which were prized for their reflective surface, but architects could seek out other variations that might mimic the translucence of the favored material. While availability determined which shells were used, the physical properties of the objects also dictated how and where in a grotto they were employed. In Stuttgart, Philippi and de Caus disagreed over the appropriate use of shells. Philippi criticized de Caus’s plan to decorate the walls of the entrance gallery with shells, since, he argued, they were not weather resistant. The Stuttgart engineer preferred to use tufa, a rock formed from volcanic ash, believing that it better withstood the depredations of time.44 Perhaps this was a moment of professional competition rather than a true reflection of the material of the shell, given that elsewhere shells were regarded as being remarkably durable.

Once the mollusks had formed the backdrop, the artisan could move on to the finer decoration, which for Furttenbach consisted of creating flower patterns from a range of specimens. In both his manuals and his Italian diary, Furttenbach provided engravings of his planned shell-flowers (fig. 71). The letters marked on the engravings show that these were first and foremost practical guides, since they allowed readers to clearly identify the objects required for re-creating Furttenbach’s designs. These shell constructions were elaborate, to say the least. One example required thirty shells to make a single flower (fig. 72). While the shapes of the sculptures sought to imitate the appearance of real flowers, their colors—here red, yellow, blue, brown, and white—presented an array of colors not found in botanical specimens. Duke Johann Friedrich’s grotto may have included shells likewise sculpted into representations of other natural forms. His engineer’s estate contained images of “a pair of wild life-size figures [made from] shells,” and Esaias van Hulsen’s papers contained plans for “21 grotesque faces [made] of shells,” as well as plans for shell sculptures depicting birds, other animals, artichokes, and pinecones.45 Perhaps these were designs for Johann Friedrich’s grotto. Magdalena Sibylla’s grotto from the 1670s included shell flowers atop the columns on either side of her bed as well as busts adorned with shells (see figs.

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