Plate 20: Three Types of Stags with a Dormouse(?)

c.1575/1590s

Joris Hoefnagel

Associated Names
Joris Hoefnagel

Artist, Flemish, 1542 - 1600

This is a painting of three deer and a small rodent-like creature within a circular frame. The central focus of the image is on three distinct deer positioned within a circle, each numbered for identification. The deer on the left has smaller, straight antlers and appears to be standing still, the central deer has its head lowered as if grazing or sniffing the ground, and the deer on the right with larger antlers is partially concealed behind a tree trunk on the right side of the circle. Below these creatures is a small rodent also numbered, situated near the foreground on grassy terrain. The trees and animals are delicately colored with fine attention to detail, emphasizing their texture and form. Around this circular composition, Latin text is inscribed at the top and bottom.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    watercolor and gold paint on parchment

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald

  • Dimensions

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

  • Accession Number

    1987.20.6.21

  • Series Title

    Animalia Qvadrvpedia et Reptilia (Terra)

Associated Artworks

See all 71 artworks
This is a book cover made of a worn, deep red material with a thin gold border around the edge. It bears the word "TERRA" embossed in the center in gold lettering. The cover has decorative metal clasps - two on the right side, one on the top, and one on the bottom - made of an aged golden material. The leather shows signs of wear, like scratches and scuff marks.

Animalia Qvadrvpedia et Reptilia (Terra)

Joris Hoefnagel

1575

This image shows an ornate title page. The title "ANIMALIA QUADRUPEDIA ET REPTILIA" is in the center in classical lettering. The design features decorative motifs such as scrollwork, floral patterns, and ribbons. At the top, there is a small emblem labeled "TERRA" with a landscape illustration. The color scheme includes pastel colors with earth tones. A Latin phrase is displayed in a ribbon-like frame towards the bottom.

Title Page

Joris Hoefnagel

1570

Plate 1: Elephant with Insects

Joris Hoefnagel

1570

Artwork history & notes

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

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).

Inscriptions

upper center in light red ink: NE CAPREA CONTRA LEONEM.; center right in black ink: XX.; animals in image numbered .1., .2., .3., and .4. in red ink: lower center in black ink: .3. / EX LONGAEVO PRVDENTIA.
Facing page: upper center in brown ink: Aperies tu manum tuam; et imples / omne animal benedictione ps: 144. (“You open your hand and fill with blessing every living creature.” Psalms 144:16) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in (gold?): Scit bene venator, Cervis ubi retia tendat: / Scit bene, qua frendens valle moretur Aper.

Wikidata ID

Q64590843

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