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🎨⏳📜Nautilus Cup, Chicago Art Institute
During the Age of Discovery, European artists were inspired by the exotic materials suddenly available to them. Goldsmiths seized on the opportunity to include wondrous and seemingly magical materials -
During the Age of Discovery, European artists were inspired by the exotic materials suddenly available to them. Goldsmiths seized on the opportunity to include wondrous and seemingly magical materials -
-including coconuts, ivory, ostrich eggs, and, in this case, a nautilus shell from the Indian Ocean - into works of art that celebrated both nature and artifice. These types of objects were also popular with collectors during the 19th c, when the mounts on this cup were reworked.
