Art Institute of Chicago

The Donkey Laden with Food, from Emblematic Figures of Animals

Adrian van de Venne (Dutch, 1589-1662)

Date

1633

Medium

Engraving on ivory laid paper

Culture

Flanders

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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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