Woman with a Shell: Transcultural Exchange, Female Bodies and Maritime Matters

This chapter discusses images of women with shells across Eurasia and the artistic negotiation of materiality and corporality, objectification and sexual agency, intimacy and distance in both physical and geographical senses. While some of the works discussed are well-known representations of Venus surrounded by sexualised objectscapes, the chapter also introduces religious imagery framed by shells and women with shells in early modern Chinese and Japanese paintings. Despite their differences, all of these works link female bodies to objects of maritime material culture. The chapter argues that in China and Europe, images of women with shells are visual and material reflections of foreign (underwater) spaces full of riches, paradise-like realms that not only promise material affluence but also erotic fulfilment.