Inscription
upper center in black ink: Quando LEONI / Fortior eripuit vitam LEO? quo nemore umquam / Expiravit Aper, maioris dentibus Apri?; center right in black ink: XI.; animals in image numbered .1. and .2.; lower center in violet ink: Dicit piger Leo est in via, et LEAENA in itineribus: sicut / ostium vertitur in cardine suo, ita piger in lectulo suo.pro.26. (“The slothful man says: ‘There is a lion in the way and a lioness in the roads. As the door turns on its hinges, so does the slothful man to his bed.” Proverbs 26:13-14) (Latin Vulgate Bible)
Facing page: upper center in red/violet ink: LEO rugiens et ursus esuriens. / Princeps impius sup[er], populum paupere[m]. pro:28 (“As a roaring lion, and a hungry bear; so is a wicked prince over the poor people.” Proverbs 28:15) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in (gold?): Sicut fremitus LEONIS ita et regis ira: / Et sicut ros super herbam, ita et hilaritas eius / Pro: 19. (“The king’s anger is as the roaring of a lion; but his cheerfulness is as dew upon the grass.” Proverbs 19:12) (Latin Vulgate Bible)
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.
[1] Although Van Mander claims the series was commissioned and purchased by Rudolf, this is impossible as dates scattered throughout volumes pre-date Hoefnagel's' contact with Rudolf. The series does not appear in Rudolf's' inventory, though he is likely to have owned it at one time as many copies from the volumes appear in his natural history collections, now in Vienna (see Bass 2020, 12).
[2] Vignau-Wilberg 2017, 98 without documentation.
[3]Wolfgang Wegner, Kurfurst Carl Theodor von der Pfalz als Kunstsammler, Mannheim, 1960: 13.
[4] Ellis was a book dealer who frequently sold to Huth and wrote the catalogue of Huth's' collection. He started his own business just a year before The Four Elements appeared at Weigel. Ellis is correctly identified by M. Bartels, "Ueber abnorme Behaarung beim Menschen," Zeitschrift fu¨r Ethnologie 11 (1879): 155, note 1.
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.
- 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.
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).
Related Content
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Associated Records
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- Animalia Qvadrvpedia et Reptilia (Terra)
- 1987.20.6
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- Title Page
- 1987.20.6.1
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- Plate 9: A Donkey and a Mule
- 1987.20.6.10
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- Plate 10: A Lion and a Civet Cat
- 1987.20.6.11
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- Plate 12: A Cheetah(?) and a Wild Sheep
- 1987.20.6.13
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- Plate 13: A Tiger, a Lynx, and a Jaguar(?)
- 1987.20.6.14
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- Plate 14: A Civet, a Lynx, and a Hyena Eating a Dog
- 1987.20.6.15
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- Plate 15: A Bear and a Lynx(?)
- 1987.20.6.16
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- Plate 16: Wild Boar
- 1987.20.6.17
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- Plate 17: Old World Porcupine (Hystrix) and Wild Pig
- 1987.20.6.18
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- Plate 18: A Pig with Acorns
- 1987.20.6.19
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- Plate 1: Elephant with Insects
- 1987.20.6.2
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- Plate 19: Four Types of Stags
- 1987.20.6.20
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- Plate 20: Three Types of Stags with a Dormouse(?)
- 1987.20.6.21
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- Plate 21: Reindeer with Melons
- 1987.20.6.22
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- Plate 24: A Wild Goat and a Barbary Sheep(?)
- 1987.20.6.25
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- Plate 25: Two Wild Goats
- 1987.20.6.26
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- Plate 26: A Red Fox and a Wolf
- 1987.20.6.27
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- Plate 2: Two Giraffes with an Attendant
- 1987.20.6.3
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- Plate 30: Two Monkeys
- 1987.20.6.31
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- Plate 32: Two Monkeys on a Table
- 1987.20.6.33
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- Plate 33: A "Simivulpa" (Opossum?) and an Ibex
- 1987.20.6.34
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- Plate 34: Three Dogs, Including a "Mimick"
- 1987.20.6.35
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- Plate 35: A Hound and a Water Spaniel
- 1987.20.6.36
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- Plate 36: Two Spotted Hounds
- 1987.20.6.37
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- Plate 37: Two Spaniels with a Gourd
- 1987.20.6.38
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- Plate 38: Two Small Dogs with a Crown Imperial
- 1987.20.6.39
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- Plate 3: Camel, Ibex, and Goat
- 1987.20.6.4
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- Plate 40: Two Otters and a Beaver
- 1987.20.6.41
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- Plate 42: Two Genets or Civet Cats with Tulips
- 1987.20.6.43
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- Plate 43: Mongoose and Badger with Fruit Trees
- 1987.20.6.44
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- Plate 44: Polecat, Mink, and Ermine
- 1987.20.6.45
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- Plate 45: Weasels, a Ferret, and a "Nut Mouse"
- 1987.20.6.46
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- Plate 4: Llama and Moose
- 1987.20.6.5
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- Plate 52: Two Sand Lizards
- 1987.20.6.53
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- Plate 56: Two Heads of Cabbage
- 1987.20.6.57
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- Plate 58: Asps and Vipers
- 1987.20.6.59
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- Plate 5: An Ox and a Camel
- 1987.20.6.6
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- Plate 59: Snakes and a Lizard
- 1987.20.6.60
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- Plate 60: Four Small Snakes
- 1987.20.6.61
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- Plate 61: Four Snails
- 1987.20.6.62
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- Plate 62: A Slug with Snails
- 1987.20.6.63
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- Plate 63: Seven Snails
- 1987.20.6.64
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- Plate 71: Empty Oval
- 1987.20.6.72
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- Plate 7: A Bull and a Horned Animal
- 1987.20.6.8
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- Plate 8: A Cow
- 1987.20.6.9