Renard skænder på den sårede bjørn 1621 - 1675

Allaert van Everdingen created this small etching, ‘Renard scolds the wounded bear,’ in the Netherlands sometime in the mid-17th century. In it we see a wounded bear and a fox. Scenes like this, depicting animals behaving in ways that highlight human follies and vices, were quite common at that time. The fox and the bear, particularly, were stock characters used to satirize social relations. It would be interesting to learn more about how popular tales involving these animals might have reflected social tensions in the Netherlands. Were certain people behaving like foxes, and others like bears? Was the artist commenting on the social hierarchies of the time? Did people see the rising merchant class as foxes and the old aristocracy as wounded bears? To better understand this etching we could look at popular fables, folk tales, and even political pamphlets. The meaning of art is always contingent on its context.