earshell work en · NOUN
Etymology
Coined with reference to the flowing figures of the style, "in which undulating, slithery and boneless forms occasionally carry a suggestion of the inside of an ear or of a conch shell."
Meanings
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(historical, uncountable) Synonym of auricular style.
Seventeenth century Dutch and German Renaissance styles often feature grotesques, as well as what was then a new artistic element, earshell work, also known as auricular ornamentation or knorpelwerk in German.
2018, Leticia Pinheiro Lima, Karolina Pallin, “The whipstaff mascaron: symbolism and the making of space in a 17th century Swedish warship.”, in The Society for Maritime and Historical archaeology’s conference 2018, page 2:The earshell work is alternately sinewy and muscular, picturesque and doughy, which characterizes the development of this decorative style, in its early stages during the first decades of the seventeenth century and reveals the birth of the style.
1986, Hans Soop, The Power and the Glory: The Sculptures of the Warship Wasa, Almqvist och Witsell, →ISBN, page 63: