Step 17 of 17

Scenes on shells

Related Images

  • Wallpaper  1720-1750 - Victoria and Albert Museum - [E.413-1924](http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78213/wallpaper-unknown/)
  • Canton plate - Image from [gotheborg.com](http://gotheborg.com/)
  • Blue-and-white dish, Canton, China, 1785–1835 - Private collection - Photo by Leslie Warwick - [Chipstone.org](http://www.chipstone.org/article.php/519/Ceramics-in-America-2012/New-Perspectives-on-Chinese-Export-Blue-and-White-Canton-Porcelain)

The multi-layered arrangement of image planes that we see on both shells resembles that of other images created in Guangzhou: for example, a wallpaper design which features a similarly structured and multi-layered scenery of water, boats, shores, and buildings and images depicted on porcelain.

In terms of figurative elements, the shells present a condensed version of multiple motifs that are typically associated with representations of Guangzhou in export paintings on canvas, pith or glass from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These paintings have been collected in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and diverse Dutch museums, among others.[Van der Poel 2017]

A particularly helpful guide to a wide range of motifs in pith paintings from Guangzhou in Australian collections has been published online by the National Library of Australia: