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 black ink: Multa sagax vulpes, unum tamen hirtus Echinus / Novit, qua mundi parte flet aura vaga. (“The wise fox has discerned many things, the rough hedgehog just one: on which side of the world the vagrant wind blows.”) (trans. Bass 2019, 207); upper center in (gold?): EX SCABRO IN LEVE[M] NV[M]QVA[M] VERTETVR ECHINUS. (“The rough hedgehog will never be made smooth.” Erasmus, Adages, 2.9.59) (trans. Bass 2019, 207); right center in black ink: XXXXVIII.; on plaque tied to tree branch on right in red ink: VIS NVLLA SED ERROR (“No strength is anything but an error.”) (trans. Bass 2019, 207); on branch under hedgehog in (gold?): MEA ME VIRTUTE INVOLVO (“I wrap myself in my virtue.” Horace, Odes/Carmina, 3.29.54-55) (trans. Bass 2019, 265); animals in image numbered .1. and .2., in red ink; lower center in red ink: ARS VARIA VVLPI, AST VNA ECHINO MAXIMA. (“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog one big thing.” Erasmus, Adages, 1.5.18) (trans. Bass 2019, 207)
Facing page: upper center in green/blue ink: Insidias cum forte strui presentit Echinus / Mox sua se spinis clausus in arma globat: / Involuit virtute sua se quisq[ue], tueri / Qui contra sortis se mala mille studet. A: Steckelius: Can[ebat]. (Stockelius?) (“When the hedgehog perceives snares devised by the mighty, / He soon curls himself up, closed within the defenses of his spines. / Whoever wraps himself in his own virtue / Applies himself to guarding against a thousand evils of fortune.”) (trans. Bass 2019, 208); middle center in black ink: Corporibus rigidis mira est prudentia parvis, / Vndiq[ue] diripiunt fructus hyemique reponunt. / Pomorum super hi cumulos se saepe volutant, / Inde domum redeunt onerati tergora pomis.; lower center in brown ink: Spargite humum foliis, inducite fontibus umbras / Pastores: mandat fieri sibi talia, Christus.

Wikidata ID

Q64590874