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.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1982

Bibliography

1984

2017

2019

Inscriptions

upper center in red/violet ink: In generatione et generationem veritas tua / Fundasti TERRAM et permanet .ps.118 (“Your truth to all generations. You have established the earth, and it remains.” Psalms 118:90) (Latin Vulgate Bible); center right in (gold?): XXXXIII.; animals in image numbered .1. and .2., in red ink; lower left center in brown ink: :1:; lower center in brown ink: Dum licet insidiis, stultum est decernere ferro. / Corpora parna, dolusq[ue] ingens in corpore parno / Insidiis Crocodile suis cadis.
Facing page: upper center in blue ink: Confiteantur tibi populi Deus, Co[n]fitea[n]t[ur] tibi populi omnes: / TERRA DEDIT FRVCTV[M] SVVM.ps.67: (“Let the people praise you, O God; let all the people praise you. The earth has yielded her fruit.” Psalms 66:6-7) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in brown ink: Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus Amnes: / Flumina amem: sylvasq[ue] inglorius.

Wikidata ID

Q64590869