ABSTRACT
A winged snail might be a monster; although, like Sitte’s invention, other instances of airborne snails hold meaning that suggest a modern or god-like future. Francesco del Cossa, a fifteenth-century Italian artist, included two snails in his painting The Annunciation—each interpreted as a figure of God, one earthbound and the other floating in the sky. Viennese Architect Camillo Sitte’s 1899 book Der Stadtbau [City Planning According to Artistic Principles] concludes his treatise on planning and designing cities with an image of a winged snail. Snails traditionally symbolize slowness yet they are also associated with deep inner thought and steadiness. They indicate new beginnings and renewal—miraculously appearing out of nowhere after springtime dew and rainfalls, climbing new plants emerging from the ground. Sitte’s flying snail might refer to a sacred future—leaving the ground and flying away—as well as to festina lente, a Latin motto meaning “hurry [or hasten] slowly.”
