Art Institute of Chicago

The Donkey Laden with Food, from Emblematic Figures of Animals

Adrian van de Venne (Dutch, 1589-1662)LinkedCulture matchlcp-d59ce24341d0

Date: 1633
Medium: Engraving on ivory laid paper
Culture: Flanders
Department: Prints and Drawings
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 51392

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

Prints of animals could be accurate and fanciful simultaneously. This finely engraved yet slightly caricatured scene from Aesop’s Fables depicts a donkey laden with fine food and wine who nonetheless happily gnaws at a prickly thistle instead. Moral interpretations of the text have ranged from “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” to a critique of stinginess. Though unsigned, this humorous image of feast and famine set off a chain of copies, ironically ending with a dozen Aesop roundels that decorated the back of trenchers, wooden plates used for the final fruit and nut course in England.

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Credit line: William McCallin McKee Memorial Endowment

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Object type: AAT300041273

Part of a LinkedCulture topic

17th-century Northern European animal studies
A collection of prints and prints-based works from the Dutch, Flemish, and Northern European traditions of the 17th century depicting domestic animals and rural pastoral scenes, primarily created through etching and engr
458 objects from 5 institutions