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 black ink: Quando LEONI / Fortior eripuit vitam LEO? quo nemore umquam / Expiravit Aper, maioris dentibus Apri?; center right in black ink: XI.; animals in image numbered .1. and .2.; lower center in violet ink: Dicit piger Leo est in via, et LEAENA in itineribus: sicut / ostium vertitur in cardine suo, ita piger in lectulo suo.pro.26. (“The slothful man says: ‘There is a lion in the way and a lioness in the roads. As the door turns on its hinges, so does the slothful man to his bed.” Proverbs 26:13-14) (Latin Vulgate Bible)
Facing page: upper center in red/violet ink: LEO rugiens et ursus esuriens. / Princeps impius sup[er], populum paupere[m]. pro:28 (“As a roaring lion, and a hungry bear; so is a wicked prince over the poor people.” Proverbs 28:15) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in (gold?): Sicut fremitus LEONIS ita et regis ira: / Et sicut ros super herbam, ita et hilaritas eius / Pro: 19. (“The king’s anger is as the roaring of a lion; but his cheerfulness is as dew upon the grass.” Proverbs 19:12) (Latin Vulgate Bible)

Wikidata ID

Q64590833