Plate 75: A Fly and Other Insects with an Iris, c. 1575/1580

Not on View

series Title

Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis): Plate LXXV

Medium

watercolor and gouache, with oval border in gold, on vellum

Dimensions

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

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald

Accession Number

1987.20.5.76

Artists / Makers

Joris Hoefnagel (artist) Flemish, 1542 - 1600

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

Upper center in red ink: HABET ET MVSCA SPLENEM. (“The fly also has a spleen (i.e, for laughing).” Erasmus,_ Adages_, 3.5.7) (trans. Vignau-Wilberg 1994, 62); center right in brown ink: LXXV.
Facing page:
Upper center in red ink: Undiq[ue] Musca suas fert alas, undiq[ue] vivit: / Musca per Hispaniam, Musca su[per][pra] Italiam.

Provenance

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

Associated Names

A.S.W. Rosenbach Gallery
Brentano, Karl August von
Ellis, Frederick Startridge
Hagen, Heinrich Secretarius
Rosenwald, Lessing J., Mrs.
William Wesley & Son

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.