Pink-Mouth Murex (phyllonotus erythrostomus)
c. 1646
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet, trimmed within platemark at right: 9.7 × 13.3 cm (3 7/8 × 5 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
145833
Art Historical Context
Step into the intricate world of 17th-century natural history with Wences Hollar's *Pink-Mouth Murex (Phyllonotus erythrost)*, an exquisite etching created around 1646. This Bohemian-born artist, renowned for his meticulous draftsmanship, captures the delicate spiral of this exotic seashell with astonishing precision. Hollar, who fled the Thirty Years' War and worked in Antwerp and London, produced hundreds of prints, including detailed studies of shells that appealed to Europe's growing fascination with cabinets of curiosities—collections of rare natural specimens prized by scholars and nobil...
About the Artist
Wenceslaus Hollar · 1607–1677
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was a prolific Bohemian etcher who became one of the most accomplished printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Prague, he trained under Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1636. Hollar spent most of his career in England, where he produced approximately 2,740 etchings documenting an extraordinary range...