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 brown ink: Id quoq[ue] quod ventis animal nutritur et aura, / Protinus assimilat tetigit quoscunque colores.; upper center in red ink: CHAMALEONTE MVTABILIOR.(“More mutable than a chameleon.” Erasmus, Adages, 3.4.1.) (trans. Bass 2019, 209); center right in brown ink: LIII.; on branch in image in (gold?) SANCTOSEBASTIANVM; animals in image numbered .1. and .2., in red ink; lower center in blue/black ink: Quis, nisi vidisset, pisces habitare sub undis, / sub limo ranas, salamandras vinere in Igne, / Aera CHAMELEONTA, et pasci rore cicadas, / crederet? (“Who would believe it unless they had seen the fish living under the seas, frogs beneath the mud, salamanders in fire, the chameleons in air, and the cicadas feeding on the dew?” Palingenius Stellatus, Zodiacus, 451 (Aquarius, lines 641-44) (trans. Bass 2019, 209)
Facing page: upper center in brown ink: Qui fecit mirabilia magna solus: Quoniam / In aeternum misericordia eius ps:135. (“To him who alone does great wonders: for his mercy endures forever.” Psalms 135:4) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in brown ink: Dominus regnavit: Exultet TERRA: letentur / INSULAE multae ps. 96. (“The Lord has reigned; let the earth rejoice; let many islands be glad.” Psalms 96:1) (Latin Vulgate Bible)

Wikidata ID

Q64590880