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 light blue ink: Acuerunt linguam suam sicut Serpentes / venenum ASPIDVM sub labiis ipsorum.ps:139. (“They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips.” Psalms 139:4) (Latin Vulgate Bible); center right in (gold?): LIX.; animals in image numbered .1., .2., .3., .4., .5., .6., and .7., in red ink; lower center in (gold?): Estote prudentes sicut serpentes: Et simplices sicut Columbae.; lower center in red ink: STELLIO manibus nititur et morat[ur] in aedib[us] regu[m].pro.30. (“A spotted lizard takes hold with it hands and lingers in kings’ palaces.” Proverbs 30:28) (Latin Vulgate Bible)
Facing page: upper center in red ink: Spiritus eius creavit Coelos: Et obstetricante manu eius / productus est serpens Tortuosus: Job.26. (“By his spirit he has garnished the heavens; his hand has formed the crooked serpent.” Job 26:13) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in brown ink: Ipsa caloris egens, gelidum non transit in orbem / Sponte sua, Niloq[ue] tenus metitur arenas. / Sed quis erit nobis lucri pudor? Indepetuntur / Huc lybici montes, et fecimus ASPIDA merces.

Wikidata ID

Q64590889