Plate 10: A Lion and a Civet Cat, c. 1575/1580

Inscription

upper center in blue(?) ink: Lilia agros, virtusque viros, coelum astra coronatn: ut leo vir fortis, dulce et amare bibit (The lilies adorn the fields, virtue adorns man, the stars adorn the sky. Just like the lion a virtuous man drinks from the sweet and the bitter, trans. Schober 2021, 51, note 56); upper center in pink ink: MORTVA LEONI, ET LEPORES INSVLTA[N]T (Even hares attack a lion when it's dead, Erasmus Adages); lower center: Dic mihi Teucrorum proles, animali muta. / Quis generosa putet, nisi fortia? (Tell me, thou offspring of the Trojans, who thinks dumb animals noble, unless strong? Juvenal); on tablet at left in image in light red ink: VICIT LEO / DE / TRIBV IVDA
Facing page: upper center in (gold?): Venatio leonis Onager in Eremo: / sic Pascua dimitum sunt pauperes.; middle center in black ink: :2: / Est locus et cauda, et villis huic obsitus albis, / Podicis inferiorq[ue] loco, quo parcius alba / Excrementa fluunt redolentia: Cepimus illa / Inter delicias: Hominum dementia tanta est.; lower center in blue ink: Corpora magnanimo, satis est prostrasse LEONI. / Pugna suum finem, cum facet hostis habet.; lower center in red ink: Iratus recole, quod nobilis ira LEONIS, / In sibi prostratos, se negat esse feram.

Provenance

Emperor Rudolph of Austria; Lessing J. Rosenwald, Alverthorpe, PA; gift to NGA, 1987.

Bibliography

2021

Schober, Sarah-Marie. "Taming the Untamable: Early modern civet cats and the nature-culture dichotomy" Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek vol 71 (Humans and Other Animals, ed. Eric Jorink, Joanna Woodall, and Edward H. Wouk) (2021): 38 - 41 and fig. 5

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