Nautilus Cup

Artist Jan Jacobsz. van Royesteyn (Dutch (Utrecht), ca. 1549-1604)

Place of OriginNetherlands

Date1596

DimensionsH: 11 1/2 × W: 3 7/8 × D: 7 7/8 in. (29.2 × 9.8 × 20 cm)

Mediumsilver gilding and nautilus shell

ClassificationMetalwork

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1973.53

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 15

Label TextDramatic and beautiful wonders of the natural world, shells of the nautilus mollusk native to the Indian Ocean were prized features of a “cabinet of curiosities” during the second half of the 16th century. Even more prized were nautilus shells mounted as cups in decorative gold or silver frames. This cup’s gilded-silver mount masterfully combines mythical creatures, imaginative sea motifs, dramatic storytelling, and technical virtuosity. The shell, a modern replacement, is held aloft by a bearded satyr (part-goat forest spirit), who rides a sea monster emerging from the roiling waves on the cup’s foot. Tritons (sea gods with human heads and torsos and fish tails) make up the strap mounts. The cup’s wide rim is engraved with a scene of a sinking ship, panicked figures, and monstrous marine creatures in a stormy sea. A large, ferocious monster, his open jaws revealing razor-sharp teeth, incorporates the inner curl of the shell. A nude heroic figure with a sword and shield steadies himself on top of the monster, ready to battle it.Published ReferencesJones, E. Alfred, " Some Old Foreign Silver in the Collection of Mr. William Randolph Hearst",. in THE CONNOISSEUR, Vol. 86, October 1930, p. 225, repr. No. III.

Frederiks, J. W., Dutch Silver, The Hague, 1961, Vol. 4, pp. XV, 20, no. 35, repr. plate 44.

Roodenburg, Marie-Cornelie, Een Hollands Pronkstilleven, Rotterdam (Bank Voor Handel en Scheepvart), 1959, p. 16, repr. p. 14.

Grisebach, Lucius, Willem Kalf 1619- 1693, Berlin, 1974, pp. 126, 267, Abb. 194.

Toledo Museum of Art, "Treasures for Toledo", in Museum News, Vol. 19, Nos. 2 & 3, 1976, p. 55, repr.

Hayward, J. F., Virtuoso - Goldsmiths and the Triumph of Mannerism 1540- 1620, London, 1976, p. 398, repr. pl. 618.

Schulze, Franz, "A Consistently Discriminating Connoisseurship,'" in Art News, Vol. 76, No. 4, Apr. 1977; repr. ( col.) p. 65.

"International Dutch silver exhibition," in Goldsmith's Journal, vol. 5, no. 6, Dec. 1979, p. 20, repr. on cover.

Mandle, Roger, "Dutch silver on display," in Apollo, vol 110, no. 214, December 1979, p. 515, repr.

Klemm, Christian, "Weltdeutung: Allegorien und Symbole in Stilleben," in Stilleben in Europa (exh. Westfalisches Landesmuseum Munster, 1979-80), p. 206, 576, no. 203, repr. p. 202.

"La vie des Arts," in L'Oeil, nos. 294-295, January-February 1980, repr. p. 73.

Schrijver, Elka, "Amsterdam: Dutch Silver", in Burlington, vol. 122, no. 92, February 1980, p. 146, repr. fig. 63, p. 151.

Sherrill, Sarah B., "Current and coming", in Antiques, vol. 117, no. 3, March 1980, p. 528, repr. p. 518.

Eldredge, Charles C., "Museum news: Silver and orange", in Art Journal, vol. 39, no. 3, Spring 1980, repr. fig. 14, p. 211.

"Exhibitions: Masterpieces of Dutch Silver," in Decorative Arts Society Newsletter, vol. 6, No. 1&2, July 1980, repr. p. 12.

Vroom, N.R.A., A modest message as intimated by the painters of the "Monochrome banketje", Schiedam, 1980, p. 99.

"Museen und Galerien," in Pantheon, vol. 38, no. 1, January-March, 1980, p. 40, repr.

"Stilisticsche aspecten in het werk van de Van Vianens", in Zeldzaam Zilver uit de Gouden Eeauw, Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 1984, p. 11, repr. [not in exhibition].

Uhlig, Wolfgang, Stilleben, Stuttgart, 1986, p. 12, repr.

Tait, Hugh, Catalogue of the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum, III, The "Curiositieis", London, 1991, p. 90.

Dawn of the Golden Age, Amsterdam/Zwolle, 1993, p. 426, 428, fig. 86b [not in exhibition].

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 82., repr. (col.) cover.

Mette, Hanns-Ulrich, Der Nautiluspokal: Wie Kunst und Natur miteinander spielen Munich, 1991, pp. 59, 197, fig. 49.

Lowenthal, Anne W., "Contemplating Kalf", in The object as subjects: studies in the interpretation of still life, Princeton, 1996, p. 33, fig. 23.

"Exhibitions," in Newsletter of the Decorative Arts Society, vol. 6, no. 2, Summer 1998, p. 18.

A Collector's Cabinet, Washington National Gallery of Art, 1998, no. 134, p. 46, repr. (col) frontispiece.

Brunner-Bulst, Martina, PIeter Claesz.:Der Haupmeister des Haarlemer Stillebens im 17 Jahrhundert, Kristischer Oeuvrekatalog Lingen, Luca, 2004, p. 187, fig. 71, p. 188.

Gemaltes Licht: die Stilleben von Willem Kalt, 1619-1693, Munchen, Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2006, p. 30, 130, Abb. 10.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 182-83, repr. (col.). Kehoe, Marsely L.Trade, Globalization, and Dutch Art and Architecture: Interrogating Dutchness and the Golden Age Amsterdam University Press, 2023, p. 39, p. 40 repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryAmsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Toledo Museum of Art; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Dutch Silver: 1580-1830, 1979-1980, no. 7, repr.

Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, A Collector's Cabinet, 1998, no. 134.