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| Ancient Greece Libation Vessel in the form of a Pelican's Foot Seashell ca. 425 BC marble Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Northern Black Sea Region Hairpin in the form of a Cockle Shell 2nd century AD gold Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Ottavio Miseroni Cup in the form of a Seashell ca. 1600-1605 carved agate with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Anonymous Dutch Artist Cup ca. 1650 seashell with silver-gilt mount Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Hendrik Goltzius Jan Govertsen van der Aer, Shell Collector of Haarlem 1603 oil on canvas Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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| Michiel van Mierevelt Portrait of an Old Man with a Shell ca. 1606 oil on panel Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Filippo Napoletano (Filippo Teodoro di Liagno) Two Conch Shells ca. 1600-1620 oil on canvas Villa Medici, Poggio a Caiano |
The Sea Shell
I have hidden inside a sea shell
but forgotten in which.
Now daily I dive,
filtering the sea through my fingers,
to find myself.
Sometimes I think
a giant fish has swallowed me.
Looking for it everywhere I want to make sure
it will get me completely.
The sea-bed attracts me, and
I'm repelled by millions
of sea shells that all look alike.
Help, I am one of them.
If only I knew, which.
How often I've gone straight up
to one of them, saying: That's me.
Only, when I prised it open
it was empty.
– Marin Sorescu, translated by Michael Hamburger (1983)
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| Sebastian Stoskopff Still Life with Nautilus Shell, Panther Shell, and Bentwood Box ca. 1630 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Adriaen Coorte Still Life with Seashells 1698 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau Shell before 1721 red and black chalk drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Alexandre-Isidore-Leroy de Barde Selection of Shells on Shelves ca. 1840 watercolor and gouache Musée du Louvre |
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| James Ensor Still Life with Seashells 1923 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Valentine Dobrée Composition with Skull and Shells ca. 1930 oil on board Burton Gallery, University of Leeds |
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| Hans Feibusch Still Life with Candle, Drape, Fruit and Shell 1980 oil on canvas Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, Sussex |
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| Jan Gossaert Neptune and Amphitrite (detail with shell as codpiece) 1516 oil on panel Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Jan Gossaert Neptune and Amphitrite 1516 oil on panel Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |