Inscription
Creatures in image numbered .1., .2, .3., .4., .5., .6., .7., .8., and .9., in red ink; center right in brown ink: X.
Facing page: upper center in blue ink: .7. / Tum Viridis Iquammis parvo Saxatilis ore.; lower center in red ink: Omnia subiecisti sub pedibus hominis: oves et boves / Insuper et pecora campi; volucres coeli, et pisces / MARIS, qui perambulant semitas MARIS ps: 8. (“You have subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea.” Psalms 8:8-9) (Latin Vulgate Bible)
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.
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.
Bibliography
- 1984
- Hendrix, Lee. Joris Hoefnagel and the Four Elements: a Study in Sixteenth-Century Nature Painting. Ph.D. Hendrix, Lee. Joris Hoefnagel and the Four Elements: a Study in Sixteenth-Century Nature Painting. Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1984 (series).dissertation, Princeton University, 1984 (series).
- 2017
- Vignau-Wilberg, Thea. Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel: Art and Science around 1600. Berlin, 2017: no. A6 (for series).
- 2019
- Bass, Marisa Ann. Insect Artifice: Nature and Art in the Dutch Revolt. Princeton, 2019 (for series).
Related Content
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- Results layout:
Associated Records
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- Animalia Aqvatilia et Cochiliata (Aqva)
- 1987.20.7
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- Title Page
- 1987.20.7.1
-
- Plate 11: Four Fish and Shells
- 1987.20.7.12
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- Plate 12: A Swordfish and Three Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.13
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- Plate 15: Six "Asellorum" Fish (Cod?)
- 1987.20.7.16
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- Plate 16: Eels, Pipefish, and Needlefish
- 1987.20.7.17
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- Plate 17: A Cod, Weever Fish, Eels, and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.18
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- Plate 20: Sea Bream, Dentex, Sargo, and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.21
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- Plate 21: Cod(?) and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.22
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- Plate 22: Mullet, Flying Fish, Eels, and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.23
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- Plate 23: Bream(?) and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.24
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- Plate 26: Gurnards, Dragonets, and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.27
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- Plate 27: Blennies, Scorpion Fish, and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.28
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- Plate 28: Sea Bream(?) and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.29
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- Plate 29: Homelyn Ray and Four Other Rays or Skates
- 1987.20.7.30
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- Plate 30: Four Rays
- 1987.20.7.31
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- Plate 32: Skates with an Egg Case and Two Flat Fish
- 1987.20.7.33
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- Plate 33: Sole and Other Flatfish with Bandfish(?)
- 1987.20.7.34
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- Plate 34: Seven Flatfish
- 1987.20.7.35
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- Plate 36: Five Fish, Including Carp(?)
- 1987.20.7.37
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- Plate 37: Six Fish, Including Carp
- 1987.20.7.38
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- Plate 38: Burbot, Rockling, and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.39
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- Plate 39: Squid, Gurnard, Pike, and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.40
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- Plate 40: Salmon, Trout, and Freshwater(?) Fish
- 1987.20.7.41
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- Plate 41: Whitefish(?) and Other Fish
- 1987.20.7.42
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- Plate 42: Nine Fish
- 1987.20.7.43
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- Plate 43: Fifteen Fish
- 1987.20.7.44
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- Plate 46: Two Crabs with Seashells
- 1987.20.7.47
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- Plate 47: Nine Crabs
- 1987.20.7.48
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- Plate 48: Ten Crabs
- 1987.20.7.49
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- Plate 4: Four Salmon
- 1987.20.7.5
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- Plate 58: Shells, including Abalone(?)
- 1987.20.7.59
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- Plate 6: Five Catfish and Sturgeon(?)
- 1987.20.7.7
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- Plate 7: Empty Oval
- 1987.20.7.8