Joris Hoefnagel

Miss Isobel Akers (c.1853-1903),
by descent to her niece, Sibella Akers Norman-Butler (1876-1940),
by descent to the present owner

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Elizabethan Art, 1926, no. III.4 (lent by Mrs. Norman-Butler);
on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, March 1991-January 2015

P. Norman, 'On an Allegorical Painting in Miniature by Joris (George) Hoefnagel, and some other works by this artist,' Archaeologia, LVII (1901), pp. 321-325, illustrated Pl. XLIV;
L. van Puyvelde, The Flemish Drawings in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London 1942, p. 16, under no. 52;
C. White and C. Crawley, The Dutch and Flemish Drawings at Windsor Castle, Cambridge 1994, p. 38, under no. 53;
C. White, Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, exh. cat., Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, et. al., 1994, under no. 13, illustrated

The vellum is support is laid down on a wooden panel, with the edges of the vellum wrapped around the edges of the wood. This is very likely the original panel backing. Some unevenness and wrinkling of the vellum at the edges, especially in bottom left corner. Some light abrasion to the surface, towards the extreme edges, and in the area of the signature, lower margin. Various very small pigment losses throughout. colours generally good and strong. Sold in a dark wood 17th-century style frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The Antwerp-born artist Joris Hoefnagel travelled widely in his youth, visiting France, Spain, England and Italy, after which he enjoyed a hugely successful career as a court artist, working first in Munich for Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, and then at the celebrated court of the Emperor Rudolf II, in Prague.  Drawing on his travel sketches, Hoefnagel made an important contribution to Braun and Hogenberg’s monumental topographical publication, Civitates Orbis Terrarum (1572-1617), but the most characteristic and significant works that he has left to us are his supremely accomplished and refined ‘cabinet miniatures.’  These are highly detailed compositions executed in gouache on paper or vellum laid down on panel, often, as here, copiously heightened with gold, which combine brilliant observation of the natural world with complex symbolic and allegorical iconography in a way that encapsulates the refined aesthetic sense and extreme sophistication so characteristic of the courts of late 16^th-century Europe. 

This superb ‘cabinet miniature,’ executed by the 23-year-old artist in 1571, when he was still working in his native Antwerp, is Hoefnagel’s earliest dated work of this type.  Its early provenance is not known, but since the 19^th century it has been in the family of the present owner, who loaned it to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, from 1991 until earlier this year.  It is, both compositionally and iconographically, the most complex and brilliant of all the artist’s works, and is by far the most important work by Hoefnagel to have appeared at auction in modern times. 

With its extensive Latin inscriptions in various parts of the composition, the iconography is extremely complex, but Thea Vignau-Wilberg (who will include this gouache in her forthcoming catalogue of Hoefnagel’s works as no. C1) has provided a detailed and fascinating description and interpretation, on which the following note is heavily dependent.  The composition consists of a central scene framed by scrollwork, with a cartouche above, inscribed with a passage from Vergil (Aeneid, iii, 57, 58): “QUID NON MORTALIA PECTORA COGIS/ AVRI SACRA FAMES ET HONORV DIRA CUPIDO?” (“Accursed thirst for gold, what do you not compel mortals to do?).  Outside the scrollwork are smaller, subsidiary scenes and the whole is contained within an elaborate border.  Throughout, there are inscriptions in Latin which serve to clarify the subject.  In the lower margin there is also an extensive signature and dating, accompanied by the motto, “Artis Natura Magister”, which is today very hard to read without technological assistance, but which was transcribed along with the other inscriptions, probably in the 19^th century, onto a sheet of paper fixed to the back of the frame.  That paper is also now damaged, and the section recording the signature has been separated from the rest of the sheet, but it was previously photographed and transcribed, confirming the reading of the signature given above.

The central scene consists of an extensive mountainous landscape, depicted in astonishing detail, in the foreground of which a crowd of spectators has gathered to watch the spectacle of two naked, headless men fighting.  The inscriptions on their shields support the theory that these two figures represent Avarice and Ambition, and their duel is symbolic of the lengths to which man will go in the pursuit of gold.  Every element of this composition is a tour de force of miniaturist brilliance.  In the background, what seems to be an anonymous citadel turns out to be a detailed depiction of Windsor Castle, presumably based on the drawing, now in the Royal Collection, which Hoefnagel made during his visit to England in 1568-9, and examination under a powerful magnifying glass reveals that even beyond the castle there are convincingly rendered figures walking along a road.  In the foreground figure group the costumes are superbly individual, no two figures dressed alike, as are the facial expressions;  we are left feeling that every type of person from the grandest to the most humble was there to witness this essential battle, and that each one is captured here with total accuracy. 

Separated from the main scene by finely rendered gold scrollwork, we see at the bottom a coastal landscape that may well depict St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall, and also, in the four corners, images, supported by Latin texts, which represent the Ages of Man.  In the top left, we see a small infant lying naked on a bed; in the top right, within a roundel, is an image of a man (possibly even Hoefnagel himself) in the prime of life; in the bottom right corner we see an old man, and in the bottom left is a wonderfully evocative image of a skeleton lying on the earth, with wispy stems of wheat growing up through it – a quintessentially 16^th-century ‘melancholy’ image, yet also one of striking modernity.  In each of these quadrants, there are also pithy Latin mottoes in the margins, reinforcing the symbolism of each image.

During his later career, and particularly when he was working at the Prague court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Hoefnagel’s gouaches were no less accomplished technically, but generally represented more straightforward subjects, with a great emphasis on natural history.  Here, in contrast, the young artist has created a bravura work of staggering brilliance, depth and complexity, not only in terms of its composition and execution, but also conceptually and iconographically.  From the perspective of the 21^st century observer, the onion-like layers of imagery and meaning that are to be found in this masterpiece of 16^th-century courtly art are truly breathtaking, as is its complete technical brilliance.

The loan of this work has been requested for the forthcoming Hoefnagel exhibition, to be held at the Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, in 2017.