Plate 63: A Dragonfly, a Spotted Longhorn, a Sexton Beetle, and Other Insects with a Blue and White Columbine, c. 1575/1580

Inscription

Upper center in red ink: FLOS, CINIS.(“A flower is only ash.” Erasmus, _Adages_, 4.7.12) (trans. Bass 2019, 107); insects in image numbered .1., 2., .3., .4., .5., and .6.; center right in brown ink: LXIII.
Facing page:
Upper center in blue ink: Ipse cognovit figmentum nostrum: recordatus est / quomiam pulvis sumus; homo sicut foenum dies ei[us] / tanq[uam] flos agri sic efflorebit. ps:102 (“He knows our frame. He remembers we are dust; Man’s days are as grass, as the flower of the field so shall he flourish.” Psalms 102-14-15) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in (gold?): Amicitiis non est utendum ut flosculis / tamdiu gratis qua[m]diu recentibus. (“Friends should not be treated like flowers, beloved only so long as they are new.”) (trans. Bass 2019, 107)

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.

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