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 left center in brown ink: .2.; upper center in brown ink: Versibus haud nostris indictus pontice CASTOR / Aufugies, rapido morsu genitalia quamuis / Membra seces, totum redimasq[ue] a funere corpus, / Parte data, sedes cursum, furiasq[ue] sequentum.; center right in (gold?): XXXX; animals in image numbered .1., 2., and .3., in red ink
Facing page: upper center in brown ink: Domini est Terra et plenitudo eius.ps.23. (“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” Psalms 23:1) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in brown ink: Tui sunt Caeli, et tua est TERRA, orbem terr[a]e et plenitudine[m] / eius tu fundasti, Aquilonem et mare tu creasti.ps: 88. (“The heavens are yours, the earth is also yours: as for the world and the fullness thereof, you have founded them. The north and the sea you have created them.” Psalms 88:12 and 13) (Latin Vulgate Bible)

Wikidata ID

Q64590866