When I started this project one year ago, I couldn’t quite imagine that it would be possible to hunt down so many snails. Literally hundreds of snails are dispersed over different types of art, and snails are just one of the animals and plants to be found in works of artists from a wide range of centuries. Digging up and hunting down these snails was a pleasure and hopefully my blogposts have been entertaining a few people as well.

Since I am a Past President and also had various other functions in the Board of the Dutch Malacological Society, it is a pleasure to dedicate this blog to the 80th anniversary of this Society during 2014. For more info, see www.spirula.nl

I started out having a few specific questions and throughout the year some threads have become visible. Two papers have been written about the topic:

Heer, S.R. de & Breure, A.S.H. (2015). Op slakkenjacht: oude afbeeldingen van landslakken in de kunsthistorie en letterkunde. – Spirula, contactblad Nederlandse Malacologische Vereniging 402: 6–9 [in Dutch, with English summary]. PDF: 80_Slakkenjacht

Breure, A.S.H. & Heer, S.R. de (2015). From a domestic commodity to a secret of trade: snails and shells of land molluscs in early (mainly 16th and 17th century) visual arts. – Basteria 79: 81-97. PDF: Link

The term ‘project’ in the first sentence was intentionally; from the start on it was intended as a time-framed activity. This blog was thus never meant to be exhaustively covering all the snails which are out there. But if it has given a good overview of what may be around and perhaps, if provoking some further research questions by someone else, it has served its purpose. Other priority projects prevent me from continuing this blog on a daily basis. But, please, this should not withhold you to go on hunting for snails!

PS2: Feel free to give feedback, to share your hunting results or to submit your wishlist for future updates of this blog.