Jacob Hoefnagel Antwerp 1575 - circa 1630

Percy Carew Essex Collection, by 1930;
sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 26 November 1984, lot 50;
Private Collection, Germany

Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, L'Ecole de Prague - La peinture à la cour de Rudolphe II, Paris, 1985, p.255;
idem, The School of Prague - Painting at the Court of Rudolf II, (English ed. of the above), Chicago/ London, 1988, p.214, cat.10.8

Hoefnagel depicts Summer enthroned with her harvest scythe, fruits in her lap, and sheaves of wheat behind. This allegory of summer is elaborated through Hoefnagel's play on the zodiac. Summer is 'cultivating [her harvest] in the star of Virgo', a sign associated with Ceres, the Goddess of Agriculture, her crown of corn representing the earth's abundance, of which she is the personification. Summer is accompanied by 'a fiery Leo' and Cancer, the sign of the zodiac when the sun reaches its summer solstice; it then follows that Phoebus, otherwise known as Apollo, the Sun god, 'returns with Cancer', seen here with his crown of laurel leaves and golden sash. This complex allegorical representation of Summer is surrounded with an elaborate border of naturalistic and exotic elements; urns full of flowers in bloom, harvest fruits, ducks feeding on seeds, and parrots perched on ripe cherry branches secured to the central scene through tiny gold clasps.

The present work comes from a series of personifications of the four seasons, which may correspond with number 146 in an inventory of works in the Vienna Burg in 1619 (see Kaufmann, 1988, loc.cit.). Winter, from the same series, was also in the 1984 sale in Amsterdam (see Provenance) and had also been in the Percy Carew Essex collection in 1930. Prepatory drawings, including designs for the missing compositions of Spring and Autumn, are in the Leiden University Printroom (inv. AW 1056-1059; see Kaufmann, 1988, loc.cit.).

Patronized by the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, at his court in Prague, Jacob was named Kammermaler in 1602, working alongside other outstanding exponents of naturalia such as his father Joris, Hans Hoffmann, and Daniel Froschl. While Jacob's work aided in the illustration and identification of natural objects from Rudolf's extensive Kunstkammer, he clearly excelled in the virtuoso art of miniature painting, with gold highlights adding to the jewel-like quality of his miniature world.