Still Life with Shells

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• Siobhan Leachman asked

  Do you know the species names of the shells, insects, animals and plants depicted in this painting?

• Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen answered

  Hi Siobhan, thank you for your interesting question. Via e-mail I will send you a more in depth answer, here's the short version: This exotic collection of shells of (sea)snails is completed with five cherries on the left and a few twigs of red currants on the right. A European Peacock (Aglais io) butterfly and a fly hover above the arrangement. A lizard on a shell seems to look at the fly. The shells, from left to right, can be identified as follows: 1. Conus pennaceus (‘feathered cone’); 2. Liguus fasciatus (‘Liguus tree snail’); 3. Pusionella nifat; 4. Polymita picta (‘Cuban land snail’); 5. Mitra episcopalis (‘Episcopal miter’); 6. Voluta musica (‘music volute’); 7. Bolinus cornutus (‘horned murex’); 8. Nerita polita (‘polished nerite’); 9. Trochus spec.; 10. Turbo sarmaticus (‘South African turban/giant periwrinkle’); 11. Cittarium pica (‘West Indian top shell/magpie shell’); 12. Amphidromus perseverus; 13. Turris spectabilis; 14. Murex motacilla; 15. Conus marmoreus (‘marbled cone’); 16. Chicoreus brunneus (‘adusta murex’); 17. Cypraea tigris (‘tiger cowrie’); 18. Pugilina morio (‘giant hairy melongena’); 19. Conus pulcher (‘butterfly cone’); 20. Murex ternispina (‘black-spined murex’); 21. Lambis lambis (‘spider conch’) Best, Tanja van Oostrum