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: Necdum Montes gravi mole constiterant, ante Colles / Ego Sapientia parturiebar: Adhuc TERRAM non fecerat / Et flumina, et cardines orbis terrae.pro.8. (“The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established, before the hills I [wisdom] was brought forth: he had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world.” Proverbs 8:25-26) (Latin Vulgate Bible); right center in (gold?): LI.
Facing page: upper center in brown ink: Priusquam MONTES fierent, et crearetur terra, et orbis: / A seculo et usq[ue] in seculum tu es DEVS ps:89 (“Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.” Psalms 89:2) (Latin Vulgate Bible); lower center in red/violet ink: TERRA mota est: Etenim Coeli distillaverunt a facie / Domini DEI sinai. Ps: 67. (“The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of the God of Sinai.” Psalms 67:9) (Latin Vulgate Bible)

Wikidata ID

Q64590878