Plate 70: A Roach Surrounded by Insects, c.1575/1590s

Inscription

Upper center in blue/black ink: Et se Asinus pardum vocat, et FORMICA leonem.; upper center in red ink: ET FORMICAE SVA BILIS INEST. (“And the ant has bile (i.e., anger).” Erasmus, _Adages_ 3.5.7) (trans. Vignau-Wilberg 1994, 62); insects in image numbered .1., .2., .3., .4., .5., and .6.; center right brown ink: LXX.; lower center in (gold?): SCILICET OBSTEPERANS ARGVTAE VESPA CICADAE.
Facing page:
Upper center in red ink: Vade ad formicam piger et considera vias eius. / et disce sapientiam.pro:6: (“Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom.” Proverbs 6:6) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in black ink: Horrea formicae tendunt ad inania nunquam: / Nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes.

Provenance

Emperor Rudolf II of Austria?[1]; Secretarius Heinrich Hagen, Vienna, 1611.[2] Count Emanuel Maria Joseph von Arco, Munich, 1751.[3] Graf von Seinsheim, canon of Salzburg and Speyer, 1753. Master stonemason Rüpfel, Munich, c. 1830. Joseph Anton Niggl [1792 - 1842], Markt Tölz. Karl August von Brentano [1817 - 1896], Augsburg. (sale, Rudolph Weigel, 28 October 1861, no. 2220-a-d]; (Frederick Startridge Ellis [active 1860 - 1885], London; formerly identified as F. S. Eliot)[3]; Henry Huth [1815 - 1878], London; by descent to his son, Alfred Henry Huth [1850 - 1910], London; (sale, Sotheby's' London, 12 June 1913, no. 3722); (William Wesley & Son, London); Charles Francis George Richard Schwerdt, Old Alresford House, Hampshire (his sale, Sotheby's' London, 15 July 1946, no. 2216); (The Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia); Lessing J. Rosenwald, Jenkintown; given to Edith Goodkind Rosenwald, Jenkintown; gift to NGA, 1987.

Exhibition History

1982

Drawings from the Holy Roman Empire, 1540 - 1680, The Art Museum, Princeton University, National Gallery of Art, Museum of Art, Carnegie Insitute, Pittsburgh (exh. cat. by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, no. 56.

1998

A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998, no. 76.

1999

From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999, no. 45, as Iris from Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis).

2002

Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002-2003, no. 30, as Ignis (Animalia Rationalia et Insecta) Plate 47.

Bibliography

1984

Hendrix, Lee. Joris Hoefnagel and the Four Elements: a Study in Sixteenth-Century Nature Painting. Ph.D. Hendrix, Lee. Joris Hoefnagel and the Four Elements: a Study in Sixteenth-Century Nature Painting. Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1984 (series).dissertation, Princeton University, 1984 (series).

2017

Vignau-Wilberg, Thea. Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel: Art and Science around 1600. Berlin, 2017: no. A6 (for series).

2019

Bass, Marisa Ann. Insect Artifice: Nature and Art in the Dutch Revolt. Princeton, 2019 (for series).

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