Plate 9: A Great White(?) Shark, Two Seals, and Two Fish

c.1575/1590s

Joris Hoefnagel

Associated Names
Joris Hoefnagel

Artist, Flemish, 1542 - 1600

This is a painting of various marine creatures. The image features multiple animals, including a seal or similar marine mammal biting into a fish with visible blood, a larger fish or cetacean with an open mouth, a smaller fish below, and a creature immersed almost entirely, showing only its head above the water. The scene is set within an oval frame. The artistic style is precise, emphasizing detailed forms and textures.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    watercolor and gold paint on parchment

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald

  • Dimensions

    page size (approximate): 14.3 x 18.4 cm (5 5/8 x 7 1/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1987.20.7.10

  • Series Title

    Animalia Aqvatilia et Cochiliata (Aqva)

Associated Artworks

See all 59 artworks
This seems to be a red, leather-bound book with gold embellishments. The book cover features the word "AQVA" embossed in gold lettering at the center. The right side, top, and bottom of the book have golden clasps with three rivet-like details on each of them. The red leather surface displays wear and age, with visible scratches and areas of darker discoloration. The edges of the cover are lined with a thin, gold border.

Animalia Aqvatilia et Cochiliata (Aqva)

Joris Hoefnagel

1575

This is a drawing of an ornately decorated title page featuring the title "ANIMALIA AQVATILIA ET CÖCHILIATA" in the center. The border surrounding the text includes pastel-colored decorative elements such as ribbons, tassels, floral motifs, and beads. At the top, there is an aquatic-themed decoration with a vessel labeled "AQVA" releasing stylized water arcs. The drawing is framed with delicate scrollwork.

Title Page

Joris Hoefnagel

1570

Two turtles and a gray rodent are in or around a trickling stream within an oval, painted frame in this horizontal watercolor painting. A russet-brown turtle swims or lies in the shallow stream near the bottom center of the oval. A number 1 appears near its face. Labeled number 2, the second turtle lies on its back on the riverbank to our left to show its ivory-white underbelly. Pebbles and a few shells line the stream. The gray rodent, numbered 3, is about a quarter the size of the turtles. Outlined against the blank background beyond the riverbank, it hunches its oval body and wraps its long, sinewy tail close to its body. One tiny front paw is raised, and its mouth pulls back to reveal minuscule sharp teeth. Writing in all caps and red ink above the oval reads, “IPSI TESTVDINES EDITE QVI CEPISTIS.” Text in dark, golden yellow, the same color as the painted oval, reads, “DOMVS AMICA DOMVS OPTA.” The number 1 appears to the right of the oval.

Plate 1: Two Loggerhead or Green Sea Turtles, a Muskrat, and Shells

Joris Hoefnagel

1570

Artwork history & notes

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

Bibliography

1984

  • Hendrix, Lee. Joris Hoefnagel and the Four Elements: a Study in Sixteenth-Century Nature Painting. Ph.D. Hendrix, Lee. Joris Hoefnagel and the Four Elements: a Study in Sixteenth-Century Nature Painting. Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1984 (series).dissertation, Princeton University, 1984 (series).

2017

  • Vignau-Wilberg, Thea. Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel: Art and Science around 1600. Berlin, 2017: no. A6 (for series).

2019

  • Bass, Marisa Ann. Insect Artifice: Nature and Art in the Dutch Revolt. Princeton, 2019 (for series).

Inscriptions

Creatures in image numbered .1., 2., .3., and .4. in red ink; center right in brown ink: IX.
Facing page: upper center in red ink: Iubilate in conspectu regis domini: Moveatur MARE et / Plenitudo eius: orbis terraru[m] et qui habitat in eo. ps.97. (“Make a joyful noise before the Lord our king; let the sea be moved and the fulness thereof: the world and they that dwell therein.” Psalms 97:6 and 7) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in black ink: Qui convertit MARE in aridam, in flumine / pertransibunt pede, ibi laetabimur in ipso / ps: 65. (“Who turns the sea into dry land, in the river they shall pass on foot: there shall we rejoice him.” Psalms 65:6) (Latin Vulgate Bible)

Wikidata ID

Q64590908

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