Images of snails have been and are used to symbolize a number of things.Their speed,or better the lack thereof,
represents slowness.For example a picture of a snail on a button of a forklifter
tells the driver that by pushing this he will go slow.
Similar is the use of the word "snails-pace".Here illustrated by this cartoon
by Thomas Nast,published in the November 24th 1877 issue of Harpers Weekly.
Their hibernating nature made snails symbols of resurrection.Here is a good example
of the use of the snail in this manner.It is found on a 17th century gravestone in
the Domchurch,Utrecht,The Netherlands.
detail
(photo's:(c)Arno Brosi)
Frida Kahlo's "Henry Ford hospital" o "la cama volando",here the snail represents the slow
course of the miscarriage.