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: Sqammeus exuitur stellate tegmine serpens / Pelle renascente, rursus redeunte Iuventa / Reptat [hians?] anguis, per sibila guttura pandens:; upper center in red ink: FRIGIDVS IN PRATIS, CANTANDO RVMPITVR ANGVIS.; center right in (gold?): LVII.; animals in image numbered .1., .2., and .3., in red ink; lower center in black ink: COLVBRVM IN SINV NE FOVETO. / Qui fodit foveam Incidet In eam: et qui dissipat sepem mordebit eum Coluber.Ecc[es]:10: (“He that digs a pit shall fall into it; and whoever breaks a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” Ecclesiastes 10:8) (Latin Vulgate Bible)
Facing page: upper center in brown ink: Fit draco Cinyphius, Colubrum, si devoret Anguis. / Fortuna crescit, visq[ue] minoris opum.; in red ink: A: Steck.Can[ebat]. (Stockelius?); lower center in brown ink: Anguibus exuitur, tenui cum pelle vetustas. / Cur nos angusta conditione sumus?

Wikidata ID

Q64590886