earshell work

Synonym of auricular style.

Noun

  1. Synonym of auricular style.
    • 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...
    • 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,...

    Synonyms: lobate style Knorpelwerk auricular style

Origin

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."