Art History Animalia

#TurtleTuesday🐢:

Tureen in the form of a sea turtle

probably Birmingham, England, c.1830

Fused silver plate, L 16½ in (419 mm) x W 17¼ in (235 mm) x H 9¾ in (248 mm)

On display at Winterthur’s Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens 96.4.54

“One of four presently known, this tureen's form demonstrates the popularity of green turtle soup, although by no means were the contents of the tureen restricted. The use of silver plate for such a grandiose form is unusual; most metal tureens were made of silver.”

#TurtleTuesday 🐢:

Tureen in the shape of a turtle

Made in Jingdezhen, China; 1750-1800

Spotted at the “Outside In: Nature-inspired Design at Winterthur” exhibition

#TurtleTuesday 🐢:

Lesbia Thorpe (Australian, 1919-2009) Young Turtles, n.d. linocut on Japanese paper, 23 x 29 cm

#TwoForTuesday on #TurtleTuesday from the British Museum:

Turtle Figure India, Mughal, Allahabad, c. early 17th c. Nephrite jade; H20 x L48.5 x W32 cm, 41 kg 🆔 “The detailed carving work allows the species to be identified, i.e., a female 'Kachuga dhongoka' [Three-Striped Roofed Turtle, now a critically endangered species] and native to the River Jumna which joins the Ganges at Allahabad.” (BM)

Turtle Netsuke Made by Kikugawa; Japan, Meiji, late 19th c. Silver; W5.4 cm 🆔 Not offically ID’d, but likely the endemic Japanese Pond Turtle (Mauremys japonica), aka nihon ishigame.

#TurtleTuesday :

Nose Ornament in the Form of a Turtle with C-shaped Body Coclé: Venado Beach, Coclé province, Panama, 800-1200 CE Spondylus shell, W. 7.3 cm (2 7/8 in.) The Art Institute of Chicago 1969.795

A fine-looking friend for #TurtleTuesday, found on fol. 98v of British Library Sloane MS 4016 (Tractatus de Herbis), Lombardy, Italy, c.1440.

#TurtleTuesday :

Hunt Slonem (American, b. 1951) Turtle Tondo, 1986 Oil on canvas, D 36 in. (91.44 cm)

#TurtleTuesday:

Jacques Hnizdovsky (Ukrainian-American, 1915-1985)

Turtle, 1962

woodcut, 15 3⁄4 x 23 1⁄4 in. (40.0 x 59.1 cm)

Smithsonian American Art Museum 1967.77.7

(probably a Radiated Tortoise)

For #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday:

Netsuke, Two Turtles Japan, c. 1750-1850 wood, H 2.4 x L 4.75 cm Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie MNK VI-5376/2

#TurtleTuesday:

Pendant depicting a tortoise Senufo culture, Côte d’Ivoire or Burkina Faso Early/mid–20th century Copper alloy, H.: 5.1 cm (2 in.) Art Institute of Chicago 2006.121

"Ornaments made of copper alloys are generally commissioned by individuals on the recommendation of a diviner as a means to encourage spiritual intervention in the resolution of individual problems or goals. This ornament is in the form of a turtle - an animal thought by the Senufo to have special ties to the spiritual world. The large round eyes and circular feet add emphasis to the neatly coiled rings of the turtle’s body. The flat, broad tail looks more like that of a fish than a turtle, but it probably made the object easier to grasp."

#TwoForTuesday + #TurtleTuesday:

A Pair of Vases: #Turtles with Jack-in-the-Pulpit*, c. 1879

Designer: Karl H. L. Müller (1820-1887)

Manufacturer: Union Porcelain Works, NYC

Porcelain, under- and overglaze decoration

Baltimore Museum of Art 1997.I27.I, 1997.I27.2

*likely misidentified; appears to be a pitcher plant, and a similar vase by the same company at another museum identifies it as such - see photo & notes below

Update #1: there is a single one of these vases on display at the Met too:

Update #2: this version at the Philadelphia Museum of Art ID’s it as a pitcher plant, as has a frog instead of a turtle:

It’s #WorldTurtleDay on a #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday!

Here are two 19th century turtle-shaped umbilical cord amulets at the Penn Museum; 1st one seen on a recent visit, 2nd one back in 2019…thought it looked different than I had remembered it! 😉 (These charms are a Native American Plains Culture Area tradition, usually turtles for newborn girls and lizards for boys.)

Turtle Umbilical Amulet #1: Assiniboine (Nakoda) culture, c. 1860 Penn Museum

Turtle Umbilical Amulet #2: Likely Lakota (Sioux) culture, c. 1880 Penn Museum

It’s #WorldTurtleDay, on a #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday! Check out this gorgeous pair of nearly 2000-year-old cast gold repoussé turtle earrings:

Pair of Earrings with Tortoises Pakistan, Taxila region (?), 1st-2nd century repoussé and cast gold 2 1/4 x 1/2 x 3/8 in. (5.72 x 1.27 x .95 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

Covering #WorldTurtleDay on a #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday (+ #TextileTuesday!) with a pair of twin turtle molas!

1. Mola: "Two Turtles" mid- 20th century artist/maker unknown, Guna people made in Island of Carti Yantupo, Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands), Panama cotton plain weave with cotton plain weave reverse appliqué 15 x 19 1/4 inches (38.1 x 48.9 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art

2. Mola: "Two Turtles" mid- 20th century artist/maker unknown, Guna people made in Island of Carti Yantupo, Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands), Panama cotton plain weave with cotton plain weave reverse appliqué 14 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches (36.2 x 51.4 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art

Another for #WorldTurtleDay on a #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday:

Albert Eckhout (Dutch, c.1610–1665) Study of Two Brazilian Tortoises, 1640 oil and paper on panel, 30.5 cm (12 in) x 51 cm (20 in) Mauritshuls collection

species ID = Red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius)

"One of the artists in Johan Maurits’s entourage [in Dutch Brazil] was Albert Eckhout. Eckhout recorded the Brazilian people, flora and fauna in drawings and paintings. Like these two red-footed tortoises with their scaly heads, shells with geometric patterns and mouths full of sharp teeth. Eckhout painted them on paper.

The animals are grunting threateningly at each other, as the males do during the breeding season. But Eckhout made the animals more exciting than they actually are – tortoises do not in fact have teeth."

#TurtleTuesday:

“Sky Woman (she/her)” by Karen Ann Hoffman (Oneida)
Wood, velvet, glass beads, Czechoslovakian crystals, cotton thread, sterling silver beads
“Adopted from the artist and living with the Field Museum in 2018”
from the Field Museum’s Native Truths: Our Stories, Our Voices exhibition

For #TurtleTuesday:

Ki-ki myo-myo 亀喜妙々(Strange and Marvellous Turtles of Happiness) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 (1797-1861), Japan, Edo period, 1847-1852. Triptych woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper, H 3.58 cm x W 7.40 cm. British Museum.

More info about the context of this image via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: "Working at the end of the Edo period, the ingenious and prolific print artist Kuniyoshi brings the story of actors’ likenesses to a comic culmination in his depiction of twenty-three turtles, each with the face of a famous Kabuki actor of the day, scurrying around a red lacquer sake cup. Newly enforced publishing censorship rules from the Tenpō Reforms (1841–43) prohibited printmakers from making identifiable pictures of actors or courtesans."