Plate 50: Grasshoppers, a Caterpillar, and a Scale Insect with a Four O'Clock Flower, c. 1575/1580

Inscription

Upper center in black ink: IPSA DIES APERIT, CONFICIT IPSA DIES. (“The very day that it opens, it passes away.” “Ausonius”, De rosis nascentibus, 40) (trans. Bass 2019, 237); caterpillar in image numbered .2., in red ink; center right in brown ink: L.
Facing page:
Upper center in red ink: Dixit et venit locusta, et bruchus, cuius / non erat numerus ps: 104: (“He spoke, and the locust came, and the bruchus, of which there was no number.” Psalms 104:34) (Latin Vulgate Bible)

Provenance

Emperor Rudolph of Austria; Lessing J. Rosenwald, Alverthorpe, PA; gift to NGA, 1987.

Exhibition History

1982

Drawings from the Holy Roman Empire, = 1540 - 1680, The Art Museum, Princeton University, National Gallery of Art, Museum of Art, Carnegie Insitute, Pittsburgh (exh. cat. by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, no. 56.

1982

Drawings from the Holy Roman Empire, 1540 - 1680, The Art Museum, Princeton University, National Gallery of Art, Museum of Art, Carnegie Insitute, Pittsburgh (exh. cat. by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, no. 56.

1998

A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998, no. 76.

1999

From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999, no. 45, as Iris from Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis).

2002

Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002-2003, no. 30, as Ignis (Animalia Rationalia et Insecta) Plate 47.

Related Content