Carved ivory cup in the form of a shell, by Nikolaus Pfaff (attrib)

An image of Sculpture / Cup or pouring vessel. Possibly made in Prague, by Nikolaus Pfaff (c.1556- before 1612). Previously considered to be by a member of the van Vianen family. In the form of an wide-mouthed shell with one side higher than the other, and its narrow lower end resting on the back of a rabbit crouching on a flat almost circular base. Over the top of the higher side is a narrow grotesque owl mask with curling ear tufts, and long flaps extending over the sides, which creates a mouth-like pouring lip. Below it is a long leaf which extends over shell-like lobes until it meets the back of the rabbit. Below the rim on the opposite side there is a grotesque male mask with a beard in the form of serrated leaf, with on each side two more serrated acanthus leaves overlapping each other. Carved and polished ivory, height, whole, 12.2 cm, width, whole, 9.0 cm, width, base, 4.3 cm, circa 1600-1610. Mannerism.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Sculpture / Cup or pouring vessel. Possibly made in Prague, by Nikolaus Pfaff (c.1556- before 1612). Previously considered to be by a member of the van Vianen family. In the form of an wide-mouthed shell with one side higher than the other, and its narrow lower end resting on the back of a rabbit crouching on a flat almost circular base. Over the top of the higher side is a narrow grotesque owl mask with curling ear tufts, and long flaps extending over the sides, which creates a mouth-like pouring lip. Below it is a long leaf which extends over shell-like lobes until it meets the back of the rabbit. Below the rim on the opposite side there is a grotesque male mask with a beard in the form of serrated leaf, with on each side two more serrated acanthus leaves overlapping each other. Carved and polished ivory, height, whole, 12.2 cm, width, whole, 9.0 cm, width, base, 4.3 cm, circa 1600-1610. Mannerism.

Image data

Accession Number: M.27-1933
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/45.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Andrew Norman
Image height: 825 pixels
Image width: 618 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 329.08kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 200
Fnumber: 45/1
Captured: 2013:01:23 10:39:52

Key words

17th Century acanthus carved cup Czech elaborate Fitz_AA grotesque ivory Mannerism Mannerist mask Nikolaus Pfaff rabbits sculpture sea shell shells vessel

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Carved ivory cup in the form of a shell, by Nikolaus Pfaff (attrib)"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-206278 Accessed: 2024-04-18 06:49:13

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-206278
            |title=Carved ivory cup in the form of a shell, by Nikolaus Pfaff (attrib)
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-18 06:49:13|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-206273

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa37/M_27_1933_1_201301_adn21_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Cup or pouring vessel"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Carved ivory cup in the form of a shell, by Nikolaus Pfaff (attrib)</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>