Medieval costumes, armor and a nautilus cup. His name might be a challenge, but German illustrator Jakob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck’s art is worth it.
Jakob Heinrich von Hefner-Alteneck
The artist lost his right arm as a youth, and yet this didn’t deter his artistic pursuits. He created captivating, strange art, and illustrated everything imaginable. Scarves, shields, slippers, spoons, steins, stools and swords galore, and even things that don’t start with the letter ‘s’ too. In his illustrations every detail has been meticulously captured, from armor rivets to clothing seams. His portraits are colorful and slightly comical, almost foretelling the stylistic tendencies of Lowbrow artists like Mark Ryden.
Most of these illustrations come from the 10 volumes of Trachten, Kunstwerke und Gerätschaften von dem frühen Mittelalter bis Ende des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts : nach gleichzeitigen Originalen (Traditional costumes, works of art and equipment from the early Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century: based on contemporary originals).
The Nautilus Cup
One of the most exciting illustrations of Hefner-Alteneck is of a nautilus cup. Nautilus cups were popular during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The wealthy would have Nautilus shells mounted upon thin stems, much like a chalice or wine flute. These items were typically part of a cabinet of curiosities, which was a collection of strange natural and man-made objects of the real and fantastic.
It would have been possible (but impractical) for someone to actually drink from nautilus cups. They were more likely used as tabletop centerpieces. Sometimes a golden lid was affixed to the shell’s top, much like a stein. However, in this bizarre illustration there appears to be a real woman wearing a transparent shift actually coming out of the nautilus cup. Does the item still exist? Did it ever exist?
We have removed the backgrounds from around 60 of the images. Check it out here.
